


A Deafening Silence

by zerogramsfat



Category: Starfighter (Comic), Starfighter Eclipse
Genre: Alternate Universe, Disabled Character, I wrote way too much, I'm Sorry, M/M, Muteness, Science Fiction, Slow Burn, What Have I Done
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2015-08-31
Updated: 2016-04-03
Packaged: 2018-04-18 01:58:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 8
Words: 33,505
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4688165
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/zerogramsfat/pseuds/zerogramsfat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>In a desperate attempt to crush the Colteron threat, the Federated Alliance resorts to creating splices of violent powerful fighters infused with Colteron DNA. After years of being kept a secret, they're back from deep space to help in the final offensive.</p><p>To stabilize the hybrids, Deimos and some of the crew are teaming up, but the threat of Colteron pales in comparison to the monsters living on their very ship?"</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Wow, so this is happening, I'm posting my work. This is... nerve wracking to say the least.  
> While reading Starfighter, I came up with a head canon about a separate unit that was so strong that I just had to write about them.  
> I played on some canon events, but this takes place completely outside of Hamlet's current story line and before they all leave on the Sleipnir.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> There's quite a bit of setup in this first chapter, but if you can bare with it for this one, I promise the characters you love and enjoy will be showing up in chapter 2. My OC just really wanted to meet you all.  
> This is also going to be a slow burn.

**E** rebus rolled over in his bunk furrowing his brow harshly.  The ship had been passing by a red giant star for nearly a week and the small gaps in his blinds were perfect for letting in just enough raging red light to make it uncomfortable.

The crew of the Spartan was coming up on one year in deep Colteron space and was finally heading back to Earth for a much needed resupplying. Taking a much slower and longer route through planetary systems to avoid detection, the crew was able to sit back and see parts of space people on the colonies and Earth could only dream of. Blue, purple and green nebulas lined with the gold of frozen and steaming gases, swirling stars that were consuming and creating each other for lifetimes, clouds of glittering red glass the size of small planets that cracked with electricity so loud the crew thought the ship was tearing in half, and meteor showers that shattered entire planets only to twinkle and fade into the wings of nearby galaxies.  While the splendors of space weren’t lost on this battle hardened crew, these seemingly everyday occurrences started to become more of… an irritation.

With a quick roll, he sat up, groaning in annoyance at the overly large sun, only thankful that the cooling system in the ship worked…even if it didn’t work well. With a good stretch, Erebus began to get ready, performing his general morning (was it morning? You never knew in space) routine.

Erebus’s room was small, bigger than the others, but still very small. One wall was big enough for the door that lead out to the hall, his bed on one side with a wall communicator, and a small two-drawer dresser on the other just beneath the window. There was enough room between them for him to change into his uniform, but not much else. Opposite the main door was another that lead to his private bathroom; fashioned with a toilet, sink, and a bathtub that was wide, but not long.

_Beep beep beep beep_

The communicator on the wall clicked on and a female voice echoed through.

“Task name Erebus, your presence is required in lower level C-24 in 15 minutes along with the rest of your unit for pre-landing briefing and new orders with Commander Hayden. Please acknowledge.”

 Erebus pressed his confirmation code into the communicator and an automatic voice responded “confirmed”.

“Thank you.” - _Beep_

With a heavy sigh, he continued to get ready, pulling out his formal uniform required for when these types of meetings were called. After a few seconds of silence, the communicator blipped on again, but this time a familiar voice popped back, this time male.

“Ee! Ee!”

He could hear the struggle in the voice as the female in the background tried to gain control, “I KNOW YOU’RE IN THERE EE. I’ll be by your quarters in a minute- _UNF_ -( _If you want to talk to Erebus use your own communicator you piece of-)_ so! _Ugh_ don’t leave just yet! Ok!( _I swear Hemera! Get OFF)_ I have news! ACK-” BEEP

The communication cut out with the last noise coming through the sound of someone being smacked _and hard._

Erebus gave another heavy sigh knowing that whatever had happened, Hemera got exactly what he deserved.  The normally overly polite blonde was among the top in his unit- his fierce fighting style and cold calculating intelligence was only masked by his clean-cut, smiling exterior and fake glasses (only a few of the crew knew). Hemera was always in the know of what was happening on the ship and his attitude towards the rest of the crew was like a mother constantly fawning over her children – proud, but they could always be better. The time in enemy space had Hemera… a little frazzled, but he kept his relaxed attitude even if his eyes had faded to a rather tight lipped indifference. When they received the news of heading back to Alliance space, his attitude changed to one of stern excitement. Everything needed to be _perfect_ before heading home.

Within minutes there was a loud pounding at his door and Erebus, still trying to get his shirt tucked into his pants, opened it to a sweaty, heavy breathing, disheveled blonde man already fitted in the same formal suit. Beat red on the left side of his face, bobby pins out of place in his long hair, Hemera beamed at him from the door way through broken glasses. Erebus paused at the sight, lips curling into a strained smile as he tried not to burst into laughter.

“What? I had to get over here as fast as I could,” Hemera pushed past him and quickly made himself at home in Erebus’ room, “here, let me help… put your arms up.” He quickly tucked Erebus’ shirt in and began to mother the rest of him. Erebus swatted him away before slipping into the bathroom to grab the rest of his items.

Hemera slinked in behind him and rubbed his face into his shoulder like a cat, whining, “Ee~ you changed the code _aaaggainnn_ , what is it? You know I don’t like it when I can’t hear youuuu”

This was not an unusual sight between the two. The rest of the crew found Hemera easily approachable despite his rank, but Erebus’ rank and stern face caused the rest of the crew to admire and respect him from afar, only speaking with him when needed. Rumors would have anyone believing he was quick to snap and easy to anger with the way he constantly furrowed his brow at people – which wasn’t incorrect, but not to the extent that the crew would have them believe. His face was easy to read and his inability to talk often lead to normal crew misinterpretations.  His unit often complained that they would set the rumors straight, but Erebus didn’t care enough to try and fix it.  Less people bothered him this way.

Erebus rolled his eyes and grabbed Hemera’s face firmly, staring him at him threateningly.

The shorter man wiggled and whimpered impatiently, “ _pleaaasssseeee_! If you don’t talk to me then you pretty much have no one to talk too except for Commander Hayden and we _all_ know how well you two get along.”

_“Blagh”_

Ee, tapped the communicator that was on his neck which in turn lit up the screen on his wrist communicator with a series of complicated numbers and letters. The device affixed to his neck was standard for everyone in their specialized company. While they weren’t only communicators, it was far easier to call them that then what they really were. Regulators? Trackers? Computers? Limiters? Shackles? It all depended on whom you spoke too, but communally they were just referred to as their communication devices. Saved a lot of explaining for those who were not familiar. The device was usually placed behind the ear and just beneath the jawline connecting to their nervous system and spine. Easily accessed from either outside on the skin or from inside the mouth, they could control almost every aspect of the subjects body depending on who had access.  They could connect to all forms of communication and technology on the ship, given you had the right clearance. For those with longer hair like Hemera, it was easy enough to hide, but Erebus’ stood out plain as day with his standard buzz cut.

“Jeez, when did you start making these so complicated? You know, you should at least be nicer to people,'” Hemera smiled sheepishly as he finished the final digit in the passcode, “people _want_ to talk to you, you’re so… _mysterious!_ ”

He waved his hands about him.

“Ever since you haven’t been able to speak normally, your popularity has grown. It’s been _months_. They ask me what your communication code is all the time. They want to know what their _big bad Alpha leader is saying all to himself and his chosen few_ ~ Little do they know you’re six feet of stupid man meat calling everyone idiots to their faces and they’re too stupid to know it! Hahaha” he punched Erebus jokingly in the arm.

_(…Idiot.)_

With that, the two of them left the room and started making their way to the meeting hall, Hemera holding a cool wet cloth he snagged from the bathroom to his cheek as they walked. Erebus nodded towards it.

_(_ What did we learn _?)_

“What? This? Jessa didn’t have to hit me as hard as she did Ee! She broke my glasses! I liked these…”

He took them off lovingly, turned them around a bit to examine the damage and then put them back on, satisfied that the damage wasn’t bad enough to stop wearing them. As they rounded a corner, a large group of people – staff, fighters, navigators and the like- were waiting for the mess hall to open up.  They all turned in a hush as they saw the two approaching, before quickly snapping to attention and saluting – faces gleaming with a terrified respect. Hemera slowed his pace next to Erebus, a sign of respect between higher and lower ranks, and while they were still close friends, he always made it a point to show his respect, per the Federated Alliance policy of course. He gave a hard stare to make sure all was within regulation before snickering lightly at the groups reactions to them – Erebus _hated_ formalities.

“I’m switching to nonverbal.”

Erebus returned the standard salute walking a little faster to make it out of the hall and as they rounded the next corner you could hear the hall breathe a heavy sigh of relief.  Erebus and Hemera finally reached the elevator to the lower levels.

_(_ If you keep making that face at them, they’re going to think you’re angry _.)_

Hemera lightly pressed between his eyebrows.

_(_ I fight next to these people, I do nothing different than them and yet as soon as promotions come around, I’m treated differently. It’s disgusting.)

(Aww, is poor Ee feeling left out?)

Erebus frowned hard.

(Weren’t you so excited to tell me something that you hijacked someone’s communicator?)

(Oh! Yes! About the meeting!)

An excitable smiling Hemera broke through. 

(Apparently there’s a rumor going around that they’re going to try and reassign some of our unit to regular fighters and navigators once we get back to Earth.)

Erebus gave out a loud snort, scaring the couple that was coming out of the newly arrived elevator.

(As if they’d allow us to have normal people as partners, Hemera. I knew you liked gossip but these are flat out lies. I’ll be surprised if they let us on the station.)

Hemera chuckled lightly as they entered after them, but as the elevator doors closed and they were alone, he turned seriously to Erebus.

(I’m serious and you’re their priority. They don’t like that your communicator is broken and they want to pair you up with someone who will fix it.  Apparently they’re growing desperate for whatever knowledge you gained on that mission you won’t talk to the superiors about. )

Hemera lightly touched Erebus’ face, tracing down from his cheek to his jaw, getting closer and closer to his communicator… Erebus smacked his hand away hard just before he managed to touch it, staring at him with a bloody ferocity. He rubbed the side of his neck, tracing the large clean scars that surrounded it, disappearing into the folds of his shirt. Hemera’s face hurt face was quickly masked with playful pouting.

(Well whatever it is, it sounds like their willing to do anything they possibly can to get that info from you.)

Erebus clicked his tongue and input the security code to take them to the lower levels. Level C was full of large storage rooms, ammunitions, spare ship parts, and a single auditorium like room, full with folding chairs and a podium with a drop down screen.  Old technology, but it worked.

Ten in all, with a few stragglers slipping past him, his unit bustled about. When they saw Erebus and Hemera the room snapped a salute before bursting into loud chatter.

“Erebus! Hemera! I heard a rumor that you two eat weak fighters that don’t run fast enough!”

“I heard a rumor that you have snakes in your room that you have eat young navigators that don’t study enough!”

“Is it true that you punched out a cadet for crying just to make him cry harder so you could save his tears?”

“Can Erebus really steal the voices of navigators that talk in front of him?”  
                Hemera snapped back, “Ladies! Ladies! Ladies!” The room fell to a hush, all wondering if they went too far with their jokes, “ You know all of these rumors are just not true… except that first one, I’ll eat ‘em but not the way you’re thinking of” he gave a wink and the room burst into a roaring laughter. Erebus and Hemera sat down, the rest of the group still jostling around them.

“What’s the code this time, Pontus?”  
                “We’re not allowed to be crypted since _his majesty_ is coming in, so it’s a public forum. You’ll see it.”

Erebus and Hemera logged into the communicator webspace: a chat like forum they all used when they didn’t want to talk.  Only people with the communicators could access them and during meetings they all held their own to discuss what was going on without having to involve the regular crew. So far it was just filled with joking and trash talk.

“ATTENTION! COMMANDER HAYDEN ON DECK.”

The room immediately went silent and everyone in fashion bent to one knee, bringing their right fist up over their left breast. In unison the room of men and women shouted “FOR THE ALLIANCE” in a booming echo.

Commander Hayden was a tall stern faced man, and entered the room with an air of disgust and self-importance. His hate of the Colteron’s was only rivaled by his love of rules and regulation. Hayen scanned the room at the 10 faces and he frowned in disgust, making note of each person’s communicator fixed neatly at their necks.

Scratch that.

His hate of the Colteron was rivaled by his hatred of _everyone in this room_.

“At ease.”

In sync, they all sat down, staring expectedly at the Commander. Everyone knew how much the Commander disliked them, to the point where he never bothered to address them in person. So what changed now?

“I will be frank. We are losing the war against the Colteron. We are losing to the point that the General is throwing an all-out attack in Colteron space and, due to the… _nature_ of your unit, has required you, and all units like yours, to assist in the missions success. We are arriving at the main Earth station in a few weeks’ time along with the other ships. You are all expected to be on that station and on the Sleipnir under Commander Cook, Commander Bering and myself.”

The room was dead silent but the communicators burst into an uproar. The men and women shouting at the top of their lungs.

(We’re just getting back from Colteron space!)

(They expect us to just go right back out?)  
(I haven’t seen real land in months!)  
(They can’t do this to us!)

(This is a one way death mission!)

(Erebus! Say something!)

His communicator was being overloaded with the screams and pleading of his comrades, all eyes on him. Even Hemera was staring at him with a look of _I-Told-You-So_ and quiet desperation. Erebus nudged Hemera before standing up. Hemera stood up quickly and stated loudly-

“Commander Hayden, task name Erebus, Alpha class A1 of this unit wishes to address the Commander using task name Hemera’s voice as a proxy.”

The Commander looked up annoyed, he hated this unit, but especially hated these two.

“I accept.”

Hemera flipped open the communicator on his neck pulling out a small cord while Erebus pressed just behind his neck where a small opening for the cord was placed and pushed it in. Hemera closed his eyes, and then in unison, turned towards the front hall. Hemera’s lips moved, but the words coming out weren’t his.

“This is task name Erebus addressing Commander Hayden through the proxy task name Hemera.”

“Yes yes” Hayden waved his hand impatiently, “get on with it.”

Erebus took in a deep breath, trying his hardest to mask the anger brewing in the pit of his stomach.

“I wish to express our concern over the sudden change in plans and request a second look at this unit’s required participation. Many of my men and women have been in Colteron space for over a year and-“

“This mission is not an option. If that is all you have to say then-“

“Then I have a set of _requests_ that I would like the Commander to listen to.  That is the least you could offer us going back?”

Hayden raised an eyebrow since the formal tone in his words did not match his harsh looking exterior. Hemera, although not in control of his mouth and the words coming out of it, was still conscious and listening, clutching hard at Erebus’ wrist. _Please know what you’re doing_. The room shifted uncomfortably, all eyes now on the Commander.  After a moments silence, trying to think of every possible way to refuse, finally nodded.

“Fine, what are these… _requests_.”  
                The public forum was in a tizzy to the point where Erebus signed out of it. It was hard to think with so many voices trying to be the loudest.

“Once in Colteron space, all limiters on my unit shall be taken off.”

Any shuffling and murmuring in the room froze and the Commander scoffed loudly. There were a million reasons to spout off how incredulous they were for even thinking this asinine request would even be considered. But something tugged at the back of Hayden’s mind; he could use this to his advantage… After a few moments of oppressive silence, he finally spoke.

“I will accept under the condition that you will report directly to me and the other two commanders on the Sleipnir and-”

The room burst in an excited and worried murmur at the thought of their limiters being taken off.  Now _that_ was true freedom. Erebus’ eyes narrowed in suspicion knowing that the next words out of the commander’s mouth were going to be nothing good.

“-AND. Another condition is, well, I will give you and your unit a _choice_. You may either have your team’s access on the Sleipnir be restricted unless accompanied by level 5 security personnel at all times around regular crew or...”

The sinking feeling of being backed into a corner creeped into Erebus’ throat. It was a setup and there was no way out of it. Hayden’s stern face broke into a smug look of victory. _I’ve got you right where I want you_.

“…You, Erebus, and the rest of your unit will be paired with regular fighters and navigators from the normal fleet. You will train them on everything you know about the Colteron and their technology.  You, Erebus, and you alone, must have your communicator fixed before entering Colteron space.  If this is not done, all of our agreements will be null and void. We will install level 5 security immediately to your team and we will _forcibly_ fix you.”

Erebus clenched his jaw, but remained steadfast in his outer appearance.

“Before we accept the new partners, they must pass our tests to ensure they are capable of handling being paired with the unit. If they fail, we will not use them.”

“I accept with the notion of my crew and the crew of Sleipnir’s safety in mind. Do you have any other demands?”

“No sir.”

Hayden waved his hand away hurridly, “Then if there is nothing else, I will have my secretary type up the conditions and you will come by my office no later than 1900. I will send out an information docket once we’ve finished with the finer details. You’re all dismissed. ”

 With a quick whip of his finger, he and his secretary left the room.

 

* * *

 

 

“Have you heard of the Tantalus Missions?”

Commander Hayden left the briefing with an odd air of satisfaction, feeling triumphant and a little chatty. His stride was brisk and his newly appointed secretary, an average meekly looking navigator, had to do an almost light jog to keep up. He looked around confused.

“A-are… are you speaking to me sir?”

 “I need you to call a meeting immediately with Commander Cook and Commander Bering in my office, then I need you to send message to Commander Ryden that we are on schedule for pick up in two months’ time.”

The navigator quickly began to send out the communicators to the other ships from his data pad to set up the meeting, frantically tapping away while trying to keep up.

“Y-yes, s-sir.”

Reaching the elevator at the end of the hall, Hayden stopped and waited patiently, hands folded neatly behind his back. The small navigator finally caught up, engrossed in his screen.

“None of the information we just had with the _things_ in that room or the meeting I am currently about to have ever happened. Correct?”

The navigator looked up and nodded obediently, the steel elevator doors opened with a quiet _ping_ and they stepped inside.. Hayden smoothed his hair back and gave a relaxed sigh. The pair stood in silence in the elevator leading up to the main deck, only the soft tapping of the boy’s fingers on the data pad and the ping of the elevator as it passed each floor filling the room. He felt very confused; he had been pulled from his regular duties to accompany the Commander for this meeting, but he couldn’t figure out why. A meeting with regular fighters would never require them to meet in the lower levels of the ship nor would it have a need for such secrecy.

Finally after some hesitation, the boy broke the silence.

“Ah, sir, if I could ask, what are the Tanta-tan…”

“The Tantalus Missions.”

Hayden said it in such a way the navigator couldn’t help but feel silly for asking. He shuffled uncomfortably and then continued tapping away.

“As we all know the Colteron are a scaley bug-like race. Large. Aggressive. Slow, but extremely strong. They reach out their _feelers_ to conquer. Destroy. Which is why it is up to us, the Federated Alliance, to stop them.”

These were facts that everyone in the Alliance knew. The boy felt as if he was about to be reprimanded for asking questions he shouldn’t with a slow but shameful history lesson. He very quietly sighed to himself and hoped that this would end soon.

“They also work on a hive mind. There is a Queen, or so we suspect,” Hayden shrugged his shoulders, “we have never been deep enough in Colteron space to confirm this. Nor have we seen their home planet. The information we know of the Colteron is actually very little. In the early days of the war, the… _Tantalus_ missions were a series of missions that sought to combine human and Colteron DNA to breach into their hive mind. If we knew _what_ they were thinking, _when_ they were thinking it, we could crush the Colteron in one fell swoop.”

“T-that would be fantastic sir, a-absolutely incredible! But it sounds impossible,” he gave a slightly worried chuckle and waved his hand at the idea. _As if that were possible_.

Hayden’s eyes narrowed slightly, but then nodded in small agreement.

“You and many others also thought the same thing. The idea was scrapped and never brought up again.”

The elevator quickly returned to a burdensome silence. The navigator felt as if he was too hasty to dismiss the idea.

“…b-but.. but what if it weren’t impossible?”

_Ping_

_…_

_Ping_

…

The elevator was nearing the top floor and the boy knew as soon as it reached the top, any chance of getting information about this _Tantalus_ mission would disappear completely. He gave another quiet sigh to himself feeling as if the opportunity to gain any knowledge was lost and wallowed in his own self-pity.

“…hypothetically,” Hayden said so silently that the boy nearly missed him say it, “if these missions did happen, and the Federated Alliance _were_ to combine Colteron and human DNA, don’t you think there would be a communal uproar? Half breeds that had the strength and aggression of a Colteron, speed and agility of a human and a possible mental connection to the most combative alien race known to mankind? No sane Alliance member would ever be able to accept them. Appreciate them, yes, but never accept them. But, they would be an extremely valuable asset to the Alliance, so they couldn’t be just thrown away, correct?”

The navigator began to answer, stopped, opened his mouth again, then shut it, thinking very hard. He felt as if he was being tested and it made his palms sweat.

“But they’re on the side of the Alliance, s-so… wouldn’t we just have to keep a close eye on them?”

“They would probably need to be kept under lock and key, watched at all times,” Hayden seemed to approve of the boys answer and nodded in agreement, “Maybe kept all in one place in deep space. Using their talents to gain intelligence on Colteron battle plans and behavior?”

With a swift step forward Commander Hayden walked out of the elevator, the young boy frantically trying to piece together the information he just received.

 “This, of course, is all hypothetical.”

If what he said were true, _if_ there were actually people with Colteron and human DNA, then a lot of what happened in the lower levels would suddenly make sense. _Limiters? Level Five Security?_ How could that be possible? Were those fighters downstairs? … _were they?-_

_OOF_

He briskly walked into Hayden’s back dropping his data pad on the ground. They had made it to the main deck of the ship and the bright cool lights and lively chatter of the crew made him rub his eyes. The two had reached the Commander’s office.

“Oh my gosh, I am s-so sorry sir. ( _ding ding!)_ Ah, um, Commander Bering and Commander Cook are awaiting you on the conference line in your office, and, uhm, oh! Commander Ryden says that he appreciates your update, he is making the necessary preparations now.”

“Thank you, you are dismissed,” Hayden just about closed the door to his office before halting and cracking it open again, “And… don’t think too much about the hypothetical I proposed to you. If you think too much on it, it’ll only lead to trouble.”

 

* * *

 

 

The boy hurried from the room and Hayden quietly closing the door behind him, thankful that he was not the smartest of secretaries he has had.  Promptly, two monitors rose from his desk and a familiar face appeared on screen.

“Commander Bering. We need to discuss some recent developments with the Tantalus unit.”

Bering could be heard coughing repeatedly, very obviously being caught off guard by the sudden statement.

“Jesus Hayden, I don’t hear from you in weeks and I don’t even get a hello? ( _I had coffee in my mouth_ ) how can there be developments?”

“I have just left a briefing with them and they have some demands that will be to our advantage, but we will need to bring in Commander Cook in order for this to work.”

Bering waved a hand in front of the screen, “We’re working on something outside of this that will be to our advantage. Is this going to interfere with Project Thebes?”

“No, there shouldn’t be any overlap.”

Another screen appeared and Commander Cook’s cold face appeared next to Bering’s.

“I will try and make this as brief as possible, Commander Cook, Commander Bering.”

Cook nodded and Hayden began to tapping quickly at the keyboard on his desk.

“I’ve got the alpha, the _problem_ one, to agree to fix his communicator under… conditions. I’ve sent a rough draft of the terms along with each of their personnel files.”

 “Why don’t you just force the bastard to get it fixed?”

“These numbers are amazing… They do this just on their own?”

“Yes, they are among the best of the best,” Hayden’s contempt was obvious, but you could hear it laced with a small twinge of pride, “a single one of them could put your best fighter navigator pair to shame. And Bering, you know it’s not as easy as that.”

“Yeah yeah, how many did he put in the med bay after you attempted to _sneak in_ and fix it?”

Hayden hated this about Bering, always bringing up past failures and rubbing it in his face. It may be funny to him, but it cost Hayden parts of his crew.

“Four” he groaned.

Bering let out a long whistle.

“And why is that?”

“Hmm, I forgot you were never fully briefed on the Tantalus missions, Cook, I will send you the encrypted data files now,” Hayden continued to tap away at his desk, not looking up while he gave a hasty explanation, “apparently an additional side effect to the serum that Doctor Letus created were that the subjects grow these… _birthmarks_. They’re large bundles of nerves, the skin becomes nearly pure white, and when touched it can cause either a submissive or extremely aggressive state in the subject.”

“What does this have to do with your problem?”

“This one, here,” Hayden tapped an image of Erebus on his screen, his standard Alliance photo was one of a much younger, much wilder boy, “Erebus, can no longer talk. His communication device was broken during a mission six months back. Nearly had it ripped out of his body.” Images pulled up on screen of the man strapped down to a gurney, bloodied bandages encased his torso, “found him half to death in a pool of his own blood with one other dead. We have not been able to find out the particulars of what happened because just before it broke, his partner on the mission hacked into his communicator and encrypted all of the data before his death. He can’t speak or write about that day without having a complete nervous system overload.”

Hayden gave out a long sigh, “We did find out that if we can reset the device, it should fix the issue, however-“

“-he’ll end up taking off a few fingers before you get close!” Bering cackled.

“…What we thought would be a simple fix on the communicator… these birthmarks, they appear at random. The strongest of the lot usually have their marks in places that aren’t easy to get to and this one… just happens to be in his mouth. Next to his communicator.”

Bering was still chuckling, delighted by all of this information, “Unless he trusts you, the only thing you’re going to get from trying to fix him is missing body parts. But! But but in the boy’s defense, he was trying to be as cooperative as possible.”

“What is so vital from that mission that you would drag in _my_ men into your scheme to get his _thing_ fixed?”

“I believe that whatever happened on that mission is vital to wiping out the Colteron. They wouldn’t just hide everything that happened without reason and that _sneaky_ half breed lot down there knows it. Which is why they cannot be trusted.”

Bering and Cook stayed silent with the weight of his words.

 “…What are the conditions of getting it fixed?”

“He’s agreed to have a partner, but they will need to pass whatever hellish test they have before they accept them. We’ll need a list of fighters and navigators with a compatibility rating of 70% or lower. Let’s break up teams we know aren’t working well.”

“What about Commander Ryden and his crew? Will they be alright to all be on the same ship?”

“I cannot speak of Commander Ryden’s crew but I assure you that I have my lot on an extremely tight leash.”

“Didn’t, uh, Erebus and that one, what’s his name from Commander Ryden’s crew, the tiny red haired one, with the wild eyes?”

“Vali…” Hayden groaned just at the thought of his name.

“Ah yes, Eris, didn’t they have some… altercation?”

“Erebus nearly ripped both his eyes out. They’re like animals, a goddamn pack of wolves. Two alphas in one room only leads to bloodshed.”

“How is this going to resolved on the Sleipnir? I will not have Alliance blood shed on my ship.”

“Commander Ryden is still in command of that unit, they were separated as soon as it was figured out that they were… incompatible, which was a disappointment. They were ferocious together.  Worked with such ease you would think that they were the same person…” _until the fighting with the Colteron stopped and the fighting with each other began…_

Bering was laughing, “I remember reading over that case, did he scoop that boy’s eye out with a spoon!? Ha! It was some of the most fucked up shit I ever-“

“A- _hem_ ”

“Oh, sorry Cook, didn’t know you were _so weak of heart_.”

“Ryden is currently headed towards Alliance controlled space.  In two months time we are to meet him there. To ensure the safety of the Sleipnir and to avoid any foreseeable issues, we will be the first to board the ship on the Earth station. We will get my crew acquainted with their new partners and issue specialized training to the list you’ve both created. One thing I can say is that they are masters at destroying Colteron. Ryden will meet us at the edge of sector Delta-920 to board there once we are ready to head into enemy space.  Separate sections of the ship will need to delegated to avoid either of these groups from mingling during noncombat hours. It will be difficult, but do-able.”

“What about during battle, will we need to worry about them turning on our own ships?”

“No, and if they do turn at any point, the sedative in their neck communicators is powerful enough to put them out.  If that fails, then you have my say to use extreme force to stop them at all costs.”

Bering and Cook both murmured their agreement.

 

* * *

 

 

Just as the door closed, the tension in the room broke with a _smack_ from Hemera ripping the cord from the back of Erebus’ neck. Erebus slouched back into his small folding chair when Hemera came back with another smack to his face.

“Erebus! Ee! Are you a fucking idiot? _Excuse my language_ , but Hayden wants you _dead_ , he wants us all _dead_ and you just gave him control over every opportunity to do so.”

Erebus sat back down in the chair pulling out his tucked in uniform.

_(You know I hate wearing this thing.)_

“Don’t change the subject!” Hemera was practically shrieking, his neat hair becoming more frazzled by the second. Erebus was practically ripping off the uniform, throwing the jacket to the side. He was trying to control every muscle in his body, but he couldn’t help but shake. He was angry that they just spent a year in Colteron space, a year trying not to die, a year watching everyone he knew perish in horrific ways. There was so much blood on their hands, some black from the Colteron, some red from… He rubbed his temples trying to figure out if he made the right choice. There was no other choice, but he could try and make the difficult choices easier.

“Any partner he picks for you will be a trap to get whatever fucking information you have stored in that head of yours.  Why can’t you just tell us what happened that day, huh? Why can’t you tell us what happened to your partner!” Hemera was quietly shrieking, shaking with despair, “What happened to Nyx?”

Erebus stood up, pulling the undershirt off his body, popping the tension in his shoulders. His muscular body was riddled with scars, the most noticeable being on his chest, crossing left to right. His back speckled with faded cuts and bruises freshly healing.

He grabbed the chair he was sitting on and tossed it across the room, crashing into more chairs left behind. The flashing images of a man, covered in black and red, hands out stretched. The pain. The Loss. Burying his face into the nape of the figure’s neck crying. The scar on his neck itched from the memories.  Erebus continued to throw anything he could get his hands on until he felt spent. Hemera sat quietly watching, wincing slightly at the sound of each crashing chair. The one thing Ee liked about Hemera was that he always knew when to keep his distance, when to give him space.

Picking up a final chair he dragged it over to where his jacket was and sat down. Breathing heavy he hid his face with his hands. He felt a gentle pat on his shoulder.

(You connected with the main hive that day didn’t you, Ee?)

Erebus didn’t say a word.  It was everyone’s worst nightmare to connect to the Colteron hive mind.  They could always feel it in the back of their skulls, screaming at them. They would wake up in cold sweats shouting at nothing, but they knew what it was. They knew what was waiting in the dark recesses of their minds. What they could truly become…

Hemera nodded with a quiet understanding, but cupping Erebus’ face in his own hands.  His stern face softened a little before he pushed his hands away. He wasn’t ready to accept that sort of kindness. Not here. Not from him.  

(Well… Look what you’ve done, you’ve made me swear at least twice today. You know how much I hate that)

He pouted playfully.

(You’ll be paired up again with someone after a year of going solo. How exciting…)

Erebus could tell Hemera was trying to break the tension even if his voice was shrouded in doubt and if anything could make him feel worse, it was seeing his friend sad at his expense. He smiled with his eyes and ruffled the man’s hair.

(It’ll be nice to have some new faces around here. Just be sure to not be too harsh on your new puppy, maybe Hayden will pick someone cute for you. Oh! It’ll probably be a younger blonde boy since you know how Hayden likes ‘em. (Hemera nudged him slightly) Oh! But what about me? I’ll be getting one too won’t I? Oh gosh, I hope it’s someone from Earth. Oooh or a female fighter, so rare! Such majestic beauties! Ee, you’ll be stolen away from me in no time)

It was going to be a long day for Erebus and he could only keep thinking about going back to sleep, in his tiny room with the slight gap in his blinds. The familiar screaming raging at the base of his skull.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Oh jeez, you made it this far. I'm so nervous, I really enjoyed writing this chapter, especially the end bit.

**T** ensions on the space station orbiting Earth were relatively low.  Despite all the attempts the Alliance gave to keep its military busy, the work meant to keep the crew busy was slowly drying up and the Colteron had not attacked in nearly a week. Navigators usually spent the time going over intelligence reports, software modifications, and battle tactics; while the fighters worked on physical training, weapons training, starfighter hardware modifications, trying to stay out of trouble as much as possible…

The two fundamentally different groups rarely shared common time except for when they came together for battle simulations. The training room was bustling with activity, navigators and fighters all discussing strategy and improvements as the training pods printed out statistics of the previous drill. The air felt different in here today. There was always a semblance of tension – they were prepared to fight the Colteron at any given moment – but this tension was from the pit of their stomachs. Fighter and navigator teams were being broken at what seemed like random, and then immediately discharged. It felt tense, because no one could put their finger on _why_.

_THWACK_

Deimos flinched back to reality as Phobos’ small fist slammed against the training pod, ripping the training statistics prematurely from its side. Other fighters and navigators turned with looks of concern that quickly faded to snickers and disgust. Phobos was used to being number one and currently? He was not and coming in second did not come naturally. The recent discharges had the navigator on edge because the pair’s individual scores should of had them at the top of the fleet, but due to their personality conflicts, it brought them down to average – on a good day.

“Are you _even_ _paying attention?_ This is worse than last time! How did you even manage to make it this far without _dying yet_.”

The fighter rolled his eyes slightly to the side maintaining his look of indifference as Phobos’ insults continued on. It didn’t matter if he was liked, Phobos aimed to let his “talents” do the talking, but it was incredibly hard when he was continuously paired with fighters who weren’t on his level. He would _train_ these fighters to meet his standards or switch them out as many times as it took to get to the top. Or at least that’s what he told Deimos time and time again until the fighter finally tuned him out.

“Are _all_ fighter’s as difficult as you? Or are you naturally this _stupid_. We’re going over cycle one again. I expect **perfection**.”

They had been in the training pod for an hour and a half and the only thing the fighter could think of was that he was supposed to be somewhere else. He had somewhere else to be; he needed to be watching someone. Phobos snapped his fingers impatiently from inside the pod.

“Are you waiting for a fucking invitation?”

Obediently, Deimos strapped himself in to the humming pod. The display turned on and two green symbols, representing other friendly ships, appeared on screen. The goal was to maneuver around them while eliminating all red enemy targets. The trick was that the simulation A.I. would begin to learn the fighter’s and navigator’s movements, progressively getting harder and harder as the exercise went on. At random the red targets blipped on screen and the pair quickly dispatched the first few with ease. The next wave came and went, Deimos ignoring Phobos’ unwanted advice from behind him. Now came the hard part.

At this point, the simulation had an accurate idea of how the pair would move and it was up to them to outsmart it.  Five more red targets appeared on screen, zipping by, deftly avoiding their shots. The friendlies on screen quickly disappeared as the red marks split off and hastily executed their objective, all five determined to finish the pair off.  Just before the final shot from the faux Colteron ship hit their target, the hatch opened.

“What is _wrong_ with you?” Phobos clicked his tongue in annoyance smacking the side of the fighter’s head from across the median, “You need to remember that _your life_ isn’t the only one out there.”

The intercom to the training room blipped on, everyone’s chatter hushed ever so slightly.

“ _Task names Deimos and Phobos, please report to Commander Cook’s office, I repeat, task names Deimos. And Phobos. Report to Commander Cook’s office._ ”

“ _Fuck_ , why would they call _both_ of us to Cook’s office? _If this is because of something you did_ … _HURRY UP!_ ”

Phobos snapping his fingers at Deimos who, again, obediently followed behind. The walk to Commander Cook’s office was one Deimos hoped to never have to relive: Phobos talked aimlessly, giving advice about things he knew nothing about, chastising him for his “lack of effort”, but Deimos could tell the navigator was worried.

Commander Bering’s secretary, a tall muscular woman, was standing outside of Cook’s quarters. As soon as she saw the two, she began typing away at the computer in her hands.

 “Task names Deimos and Phobos are here to see you as requested sir.”

“Send them in.”

To the fighter and the navigator’s surprise, both Commander Bering and Commander Cook were in the room with a monitor up that had a third unfamiliar high ranking commander. The two men were mulling over large stacks of personnel files that the duo quickly took note of. Among the files open, they all had the stamp “Failed” across the top in large red lettering. Deimos could see the sweat forming on the sides of Phobos’ temples. _These were the files of discharged units_.

Bering set another file on the desk and Cook opened it, giving a heavy sigh.

“And this one?”

“He’s in the med bay. Three broken ribs.”

“Jesus…” Cook leaned back in his chair and rubbed his temples before pulling out two more files from the stack handing them to the other commander. Bering snapped at the man on the screen pointing with the files as threateningly as possible.

“How do you plan on taking responsibility for the two fighters in med bay with broken ribs Hayden?”

“They knew the consequences of failure, Bering. So did you.” Hayden’s words dripped with a cold indifference.

“It is _OUR DUTY_ to defeat the Colteron, I WILL NOT have my men and woman tossed about just so you can get your little _experiments_ to cooperate. You understand me?” Cook was attempting to restrain his voice, “this is the last pair _or we will jettison those bastards out of the airlock into deep space._ ”

Hayden’s face crumpled with discontent before the monitor clicked off.

“Phobos. Deimos.”

Cook was the first to address the extremely confused pair. They snapped to attention at the doorway.

“At ease.”

The white haired commander continued to rub his temples while Bering flipped open a data pad with Deimos’ picture neatly reflecting through.

“I see that the two of you have volunteered for the mission into Colteron space.”

“Yes sir,” they responded and then continued to stand in silence.

“That was Commander Hayden… he will be joining us on the mission, but…”

“But before going to Colteron space, we are reassigning the two of you.” Bering stated cooly. Phobos’ face immediately contorted with frustration. _He fucking knew it_.

“Sir, if this is about our scores I can assure you-“

Cook put his hand up for silence and Bering snorted, bringing up the display with Phobos’ and Deimos’ information. Their medical history, training records, test scores, all within view.

“Your training scores together have nothing to do with this, although,” Cook shifted the papers on his desk to reveal their most recent training statistics, “it was taken into account that the compatibility between you two has been dropping. We can’t have scores like this out in the real world. Lives are on the line and Colteron don’t give do-overs.”

Deimos could feel the look of pure hatred radiating from the man at his side. Cook’s cold gaze pierced the navigator to his core. Phobos wasn’t going to be able to live this down if he had to be reassigned again or worse, _decommissioned_.

“Sir… is this…a demotion?”

Bering gave a hollow laugh that echoed in the room, scratching his beard.

“No, in fact, if you pass, this will be considered a promotion! But if you fail, well, you’ll probably end up in med--”

“We will be sending you on the next flight back to your respective homes,” Cook interrupted glaring sharply at the other commander, “this fleet does not need fighters _or_ navigators that cannot cooperate with one another.”

Deimos’ eyebrows wrinkled and the pit of his stomach seemed to fall into a dark abyss that didn’t seem to end. He couldn’t be sent home, because there was nothing there for him. He didn’t have a home to go back to. Where would he go? He needed to be here, he needed to protect his friend? Bering patted the two on the shoulder before making his way to the door.

“Don’t look so worried! Unlike Commander Cook here, I believe that you two will pass this test with flying colors. You don’t have a choice!” He said matter-of-factly.

The now tight lipped navigator finally managed to croak out, “Pass?”

“Yes, Phobos, pass,” Cook’s annoyance laced his words, “we will be placing you both on a special assignment that will require your separation. You will be appointed a new fighter and navigator with higher compatibility ratings, but, due to the extremely sensitive and classified information within this mission and this…” he waved his hand in the air trying to catch the word, “ _team_ , we cannot reveal any details until you have passed their test. If you meet the requirements, your reassignment will be finalized.”

“How will we know if we’ve passed?”

“You will know.”

Bering opened the door and a man clad in the casual navigator’s uniform walked in, his long blonde hair pulled neatly back in a bun. The man’s glasses seemed to enhance his piercing blue eyes (Deimos noticed there were no lenses? What was that attached to the side of his neck?) which softened with his smiling face. He nodded to the commanders and stood silently by the doorway, giving a small wave to Phobos and Deimos.

“This is… lieutenant Hemera.  He will be evaluating how the two of you work together in the training pods. Where is Erebus?”

“Erebus has tasked me with doing the preliminary check; he will meet us once I have finished conducting and summarizing the results.”

“What could he POSSIBLY be doing that is more important than being at this assessment?” Cook’s raised eyebrows and piercing gaze caused everyone in the room to turn towards Hemera. He scratched the side of his face, smiling nervously, “his previous meeting is running… a little longer than anticipated.”

He shrugged slightly, not willing to offer more of an explanation despite the rage forming behind the commander’s ears. Bering snorted again, mumbled something under his breath and then clapped his hands together.

“Starting now, you two are under Hemera’s observation. Head to the training deck, you are all dismissed.”

“Do not disappoint us.”

 

* * *

  

Deimos and Phobos saluted and walked out of the stifling room with Hemera in tow. He remained poised and silent until they were a good distance from the commanders. Stopping, Hemera gave a composed sigh of relief placing his hand over his heart. This was the fifth time he has had to walk into that room and each time it made him increasingly uncomfortable. With each failure, the commander’s frustration grew to the point where Hemera could feel it radiating from the walls.

“WOW. That was… that was stressful and _unpleasant_. It feels like I aged by thirty years just being in that room.”

Hemera glanced at the two expectantly, only to see that his joke was not well received. The small fighter’s face didn’t move, but he could see the creeping wrinkles of worry at the edges of his eyes. The navigator had his arms folded, biting his nails mumbling under his breath. The information the pair received was either pass Hemera’s mystery examination or be sent home, not something that can be well digested in a 15 minute meeting. Hemera needed to lighten the mood a little.

“I bet you are both very surprised and confused, but I assure you, everything is alright. Everything will be alright,” Hemera was not used to lying, “I will just be observing your normal training and we will go from there.”

 He gave the best smile that he could. People loved smiles, smiles put people at _ease._

Phobos stopped biting his nails just long enough to give Deimos a flash of unbridled hatred which the fighter avoided.

“Well…then… try and see this as an evaluation for a promotion, if you think of it that way, everything should be fine.”

 The pair followed in silence with the weight of what was happening.

“I will just have the two of you go through a standard training module as a pair. Once that has been completed, I will then evaluate you separately. Alright? Unfortunately I am unable to answer any questions either of you may have about the assessment until it has been completed, I _can_ , however, answer any other questions you may have.”

Hemera turned to Deimos opening his file, “it seems that you two were chosen because your individual abilities are quite impressive! Phobos, you’re among the top ten percentile for the navigators! (Phobos puffed up a bit with a knowing smirk) And you, Deimos, says here that your battle adaptation and weapons expertise make you a fearsome opponent among the fighers.”

The small fighter looked up in acknowledgement.

 “You haven’t said a word this entire time, is there something on your mind?”

“Don’t expect to get anything out of him,” Phobos interrupted, “He rarely speaks to the people, making training _impossible_. He only talks to people _he likes_.”

Hemera narrowed his eyes, annoyed at the interruption.

“Please be mindful of _rank_ and _refrain_ from interrupting, Phobos. It’s rude. On the other hand, I’m assuming you are not one of those people he _likes_?”

He asked even though he already knew the answer.  It was written all over their body language. Stepping into the elevator, the navigator and fighter positioned themselves on either side of Hemera keeping as much distance between them as possible. _These two could not stand each other_ and with the quick glance he had of their files, their scores were just above average even though separately they exceeded expectations. It was a wonder they weren’t reassigned earlier than this.

Phobos responded with a snort of contempt and Deimos continued looking on unwavering in his indifference

“No sir…”

Hemera placed a cool hand on his cheek and sighed thoughtfully.

“Erebus isn’t much of a talker either, so it looks like it will just be you and me Phobos.”

He giggled at his inside joke. _This was going to be interesting._

 

* * *

  

Erebus strolled into the training room with a cigarette lazily dangling from the side of his mouth. The last month being docked on the space station had been a welcome difference from the year in Colteron space, but he would rather be back there than dealing with the bureaucratic nonsense that came with being stationed outside of Earth. He spoke significantly less when they reached the orbiting military hub, not that he could say much, but it was getting tiresome to try and play this diplomat game. Everything here was so… _clean_. White walls, white doors, white uniforms, even the food tasted as if there was some chemical additive to make it _hygienic_. He was uncomfortable, _unsettled_.  

Even though Erebus and his unit were currently allowed access to certain parts of the station, they were to remain on their home ship, the Spartan, unless otherwise needed. Erebus, when not assessing the potential partners Commander Hayden and others threw at him, spent his time updating the technology and software of his ships in the recesses of the Spartan. The hardware in the current fleet was lighter and faster than what he was used to and the software was harder to hack. Erebus found himself spending hours at a time coding and decoding pages of information from the station, only to spend more hours pulling out the insides of his ship and replacing them.

He had just finished reconfiguring the pull on his ship (he still couldn’t figure out why it kept going left) when he realized what time it was.

“Excuse me? Excuse me sir! _EXCUSE ME_ ”

The tall man stopped and slowly turned to the source of the noise. A small (everyone was small compared to him) official looking staff member chirped up at him. This one was used to being listened to and said in a very matter-of-fact way, “There is no smoking in this room at any time. Please dispose of it immediately.”

Erebus looked the man up and down before taking a long drag. He was still in his mechanic’s jumpsuit, the arms wrapped around his waist, and his standard issue sleeveless black shirt that was covered in dirt and oil. With the scars on his arms and a mean look on his face, Erebus did not look like he belonged in this white pristine room. He didn’t look like he belonged anywhere.   _He looked like a goddamn criminal._

The veins in the round-faced man’s neck began to pop.

“If you do not dispose of that cigarette immediately!  I will need to speak to your superior! What is your task name?” He whipped out a screen and began to furiously tap away. Erebus’s expression didn’t change as he pulled out his ID and slipped it into the receiving slot of the man’s pad. It took a second; it was an older ID, until his face and name popped up. He continued to smoke his cigarette.

“WELL THEN, Mister… mister… Erebus! Yes, Erebus- lieutenant… Erebus…” the slow realization of who he was began to sink in and Erebus could see the gears in his mind turning, trying to back track as far as possible. While they held no true rank in the military, their group so specialized that it would be silly to try and play the “who out ranks who” game. The higher ups slapped lieutenant on the ten of them so it was easier for them to move about the station without question.

“I-I am so sorry, sir, I-“

Erebus put his hand up for silence; he really wanted this tiny pig man to stop talking to him. With one last drag, he put the butt of the cigarette out on the screen. Taking his ID back into his pocket, Erebus headed towards where he could see Hemera, leaving the stuttering man to pick up his pride.

“Ee. Better late than neve- what are you wearing?” Hemera looked up from his display in disgust, “You know, you could have at least _tried_ to appear like you care?”

Erebus lifted his arms up in defeat before motioning to the closed pod. Why would he change when it was just going to get dirty again?

“This is the last pair and so far they appear decent. Their abilities are beyond expectations, but their personalities…”

As if on cue, the pod opened up to a sharp tongued navigator who immediately started firing insults at the fighter. Erebus frowned, crossing his arms. Hemera folded the device in his hands and interjected himself in between the pair.

“If you will allow me to introduce you to Lieutenant Erebus, he will also be a part of evaluating you today. Ee, this is Phobos and Deimos.”

Phobos gave a small salute, the judgment on his face as he saw Erebus was apparent, and Deimos followed suit as he stepped from the module.  

“Just a warning, Erebus is currently unable to speak, but he will be communicating through me. If you are worried or have any questions about what he could be saying, do not hesitate to ask, however I highly doubt that you will.”

Erebus looked at Hemera with concern.

_(This can’t be right. HE is the fighter? )_

“…yes that _is_ correct.”

Erebus exasperatedly pointed to the small man with both hands.

_(Him?)_

“ _Yes Erebus. Stop being rude.”_

_(But he’s so… small.)_

Deimos looked questioningly between Erebus and Hemera as the dark muscled man seemed exasperated by him. Erebus easily had a foot on the fighter and before he could do or say anything else, Hemera slapped a small display into his open hands

( _I think there’s some Earth saying about big surprises in small packages?)_  

Erebus gave an audible grunt of approval and handed back the data pad with the fighters credentials, looking for the information of their most current run.

“Get changed and meet us in the hall. For the individual assessments, we will be heading to room M6 in the fighter’s deck.”

An offended Phobos piped up.

“I’m a _navigator_ , what possible assessment could you have me complete in the fighter’s deck?”

 “We will be showing you some informational logs before we complete the final assessment and the _fighter’s deck_ is where we chosen to have it.  If you have an issue with that, then maybe this is as far as you go Phobos.”

Hemera gave a smile that sent chills down Erebus’ back. The navigator shook his head and, grabbing Deimos’ arm, hurried to change.

The group continued to stay silent as they made their way down the few floors to where the main fighter’s training area was. Erebus found this place to be one of the few that he enjoyed. A mixture of brawn and technology.

A small room, far off to the side -one that seemed like it was rarely used here- automatically lit up as the group entered. Hemera began to tap away at the computer before the wall filled with the dim green light of the display. Erebus sat in the back, kicking up his feet on the chair in front of him. He _despised_ this part.

“Deimos, Phobos, at this point I will be frank with you. The information I am about to share is considered classified and-“

_Knock knock_

Firm tapping on the door surprised everyone. Erebus reached over and opened the door without standing up, struggling a little more than he probably should have.

“Oh! Commander Bering, this is a surprise…” Deimos and Phobos shot up to salute the breaded commander as he walked in with two others in tow. Hemera gave a tight lipped smile and Erebus remained seated, he purposefully avoided going to the meeting to meet the commanders and yet it was unavoidable.

“At ease,” he chuckled, “Unlike Commander Cook, I _personally_ wanted to see how these assessments were being conducted since I _strongly_ believe these two will succeed. I also want our top team the Reliant to be trained and aware of this briefing. Cain, Abel, meet Hemera (he snaped at attention and saluted) and this is Erebus (at this he lazily stood up, saluted and quickly sat down). I believe you are familiar with the others here.”

Bering grabbed a seat casually next to Erebus in the back, while Cain and Abel sat next to Deimos. Erebus took a small mental note of their positions: Cain made sure to have Abel as far from the others as possible and positioned himself between him and Deimos. Deimos’ face relaxed slightly at the sight of Cain, but then went ridged again at the sight of his blonde haired companion. Phobos remained in a sate of peak annoyance and seemed to become even more strained (was that possible?) when Abel stepped foot into the room. They were all far too easy to read.

“Before you continue, I want to confirm that the Reliant is not, and I repeat, _not_ a part of your test, regardless of the information shared here. You, and Erebus, will be sharing your knowledge of the new weapon systems and Colteron behaviors alongside these two should they pass.”

Hemera gave a slight nod, glanced at Erebus, and then continued on with his speech.

“As I was saying… Deimos, Phobos, once this briefing is over, you will have two options. One will be to continue with the assessment and be reassigned- ( _Suck it Phobos!-Cain shut up!)_ …you will be reassigned with a new fighter or navigator upon passing. If you decide that is not the route you wish to take, you will pack your things, and be on the next ship back to your respective homes.”

Phobos straightened up, mumbling under his breath, _as if I’m being sent home while these ass hats are still here_.

Deimos glanced up expectantly at Cain for a split second before nodding in acknowledgement.

“Then let’s get started.”

The loading bar finally filled to 100% on the main display and pictures of Colteron opened one by one.

“As you all know, Colteron are not stupid. They work with a hive mind, one Alpha, or Queen, that can sense and delegate orders among them. While it is not direct information, they can all have a sense of what the other is doing, which is why they are such formidable opponents. The Tantalus missions were an attempt to break into their hive mind. If we knew what they were thinking, when they were thinking it, then we probably would not be having this war. In order to do this, they needed a live specimen.”

The images of the Colteron faded to the background and a video popped into view. It was silent security footage of three fighters firing into a hallway, being pushed back as a Colteron burst into frame grabbing on the fighters. It tossed the fighters body out of frame breaking the gun in his hand before grabbing the face of the fighter next to him, the video pausing just before the Colteron smashed his seemingly screaming face into the wall.

“As you can see, trapping a live subject was… harder than anticipated. The Colteron’s strength is five times that of a human’s and it took three deaths and ten critically injured men before that particular Colteron was finally put down. Doctor Letus, who was heading the medical research on this mission, found a gland in the dead Colteron that secreted a black metallic liquid.”

Another video began to play, a tiny weathered old man covered in plastic surgical gear was pulling the insides out of a Colteron, its dark red, almost black blood covering him head to toe. The video jumped forward, this time he was holding a tiny piece of alien flesh that oozed a black liquid. It jumped again, this time to a man strapped to a chair, Doctor Letus leaning over him, injecting him in the neck with the same black liquid.

“He had a theory that if a human body could adapt to this, we would be able to connect to the hive mind, possibly control it.”

The man on the table began screaming. The veins in his neck started to fade to black, spidering and spread throughout his body. Jump – the man’s eyes were pitch black and he was screaming, this time not in pain but in a rage, focused, deliberate. He was struggling to break free from his restraints – the video jumped again, a nurse was attempting to administer a sedative when one of the straps on the chair broke. The man lurched forward at the nurse, falling out of frame. The video jumped- blood speckled the lens and a fighter rushed forward gun aimed. He was yelling something, his mouth was moving, and shot twice. Hemera paused the video before it could continue.

“The side effects of the serum he created were extreme aggression and unnatural strength and speed. The subject in the video killed two nurses and injured the doctor before finally dying from two shots to the head. The Doctor continued to work on creating a serum that would take into account human DNA. After _many_ failed trials, the serum was perfected, well, perfected enough. The subjects were not able to connect to the Colteron’s hive mind, but they created their own.”

Another video began to play – a nervous, but smiling man strapped to a chair, the Doctor injecting the serum into his neck. The black veins started again at his neck and his face was contorted in pain.  Jump. The man in the chair sweating profusely and a nurse was undoing the straps.  The man gave a weary smile and a thumb up to the camera. Jump again. The man was dressed in the black fighter’s uniform standing next to a starfighter. He waved to the camera and squat beneath the back of the ship. With ease, he lifted the side of the ship.

Cain was looking on with a dumbfounded amazement, nudging Abel’s side to the point where the navigator had to smack his arm.

“With the combining of blood, the subjects became more like a pack of wolves, creating a hierarchy amongst themselves. The strongest of the group, as they began to refer to them as _alpha_ s,were the center of the newly created hive mind. This alpha was then placed in charge of the group, but constantly kept under close watch by Commander Ryden. He is still alive today and will be joining the Sleipnir in a few months’ time.”

A picture of a stern faced dark haired man appeared on screen, a scar running across his face. Erebus looked away. No one liked that man and his image sent a burning sensation to the back of his eyes.

Another video began to play- a starfighter in a battle with a Colteron ship appeared on screen, quickly passing by each other almost crashing before the Alliance ship veered away. Hemera back tracked through the video and paused it just as the ship barely missed. A figure could be seen standing on the outside of the ship.

“The group, at this point called Tants, began a new type of guerilla warfare on the Colteron. By strapping themselves to the outside of their ships, they would leap from ship to ship to… dispose of the enemy.”

He resumed the video, and the figure stood up on the ship, small lights flashed as a gun was fired downward into the cockpit.

“It amazes me every time I see it,” Bering cooed, nudging Erebus in the leg. Erebus folded his arms smirking a little. _It was a little amazing._

Hemera shuffled uncomfortably and continued, “After some complications, the entirety of Doctor Letus’ research was scrapped and the subjects deactivated. (Deactivated? What do you mean _deactivated_? – Princess _you gotta shut up_ ) After many years and new information, the project was then picked back up again in secret, funded by Commander Ryden himself, and a serum was created that permanently altered the human genome.”

Cain’s hand shot into the air.

“…No we will _not_ be injecting you with the serum...” The hand dropped disappointedly.

“…but 50 people were before the project was, again, dropped. Now, I’m sure you are confused to why we are telling you this information now instead of testing you and then telling you from there? Commander Bering and Commander Cook felt that it was unfair to test you without having adequate knowledge of the _nature_ of the participants.”

“You mean there are people who have that stuff in them _here?_ ”

Commander Bering snapped at Cain, his constant interruptions had everyone wondering how he managed to get any information on anything _ever_.  

After a pause, Hemera continued.

“I am Hemera, also known as B1-27 of the Tantalus missions, behind you is Erebus, also known as A1-15 of the Tantalus missions. Today, we will be testing you to be _our partners_.”

A silence settled on the room as they all processed the information dump Hemera laid on them.

“… _Bullshit_ ” Cain was the first to break the silence.

“He is not bullshitting you, Cain,” Bering interjected scoldingly, “Due to the mission into Colteron space being one of our last offensives, we have decided to pull out all the stops, including pulling the hidden half breed Colteron unit we’ve had in enemy space gathering intelligence to join us. Since… _trust_ is a little thin between us,” Bering slapped the back of Erebus’ neck laughing darkly, “it was determined that maybe to bridge this gap, we need to incorporate them back into the Alliance fleet. They have a lot of valuable information they can share, but due to their _pack like_ mentality, and this big guy’s broken _whatever-it-is_ , they are unable to share it with those who aren’t one of their own. SO!”

Bering cheerfully clapped his hands together.

“Deimos! Phobos! It is up to you to be deemed worthy of their partnership for the betterment of the Federated Alliance.  So please, Hemera, who will be going first?”

Hemera pulled up his data pad again.

“…sir, the fighter’s test is a lot faster, but-“

“Deimos it is then!”

“…if you will all follow me…” Hemera’s discomfort was obvious as he left the room, Erebus and Bering being the last to leave. Just before reaching the door, the commander stopped Erebus gripping his shoulder tightly.

“If I could have, _one_ request, it would be to not kill my fighters?”

Erebus gave a small nod of acknowledgement and wrenched his arm away.

_He hated this_.

Leading out to the fighter’s main deck was a large common area that connected to a sparring room where the fighters could practice their hand-to-hand combat. It was about the size of an Earth tennis court, or so they were told, and half of the room was covered in glass that faced to the fighter’s general area. As soon as Bering showed his face, the men and women in the room saluted and cleared out, their curiosity preventing them from leaving. 

“Deimos, your test, due to the nature of your partner, will be to… _withstand_ two minutes of combat with Erebus. You may use any weapon of your choice that you have available excluding live ammunition per the rules and regulation of this station. Do you agree?”

_He really hated this._

The small fighter was sweating, but gave a firm nod, with the realization that he was possibly about to fight a half man half Colteron.

“Alright, then if you will take your places…”

A crowd was forming of other fighters, a few navigators speckled in between. Who was with Commander Bering? Were they going to fight? Cain was standing outside of the glass shouting _Kick his ass!_ Among other things that was making Abel turn slightly pink with embarrassment.

_He really really hated this._

Erebus pulled the jumpsuit around his waist a little tighter as he positioned himself across from his incredibly tiny opponent. He looked over at Hemera who didn’t attempt to hide his concern. His communicator clicked and the blondes voice came in clear.

_(Ee, remember why we’re here-)_

Bering bellowed through Hemera’s words, “Begin in …3!”

Erebus looked forward, knuckles cracking as he balled them into perfect fists…

“…2!”

_He despised this._

…taking a deep breath, he lowered his center of gravity...

“…1!”

_He loathed this._

_“Begin!”_

…and with incredible speed, was rushing across the room with intent to kill.

_Erebus hated this because he loved it_.


	3. Chapter 3

Lying on his back, Erebus winced as the medical officer pulled the small blade from his side while Hemera was attempting to bite his lip to prevent laughing out loud, but the tears forming in the corner of his eyes betrayed him.

(I’m right here you know)

(I know, I know, I’m sorry, but _he stabbed you. You should have seen your face_ )

Erebus frowned hard and let his head rest back as the nurse began to stitch up his open wound.

 

* * *

 

 

Two minutes was too long for Erebus. Most fighters went down within the first couple seconds - although he did feel bad for the one who lasted a full minute – because he prided himself on quickness and efficiency. Even if his communicator limited his strength, it felt like he was walking a tight rope over a cavern of liquid chaos, a fine thin line between his composed human self and the unshackled bloody rage of the alien DNA coursing through him. Erebus hated the sensation because he knew he shouldn’t enjoy fighting. He shouldn’t be enjoying punching his fellow man, hearing the crack of bones beneath his fingers, the smell of sweat and blood. It was a reminder of what he was and he both despised and reveled in the feeling.

“ _Begin!”_

In the split second it took Erebus to close the distance between himself and Deimos, he was able to analyze the small details in his opponent’s movements. He was surprised to see that Deimos’ reaction time was exceptional as his fist barely missed the man’s face. Deimos managed to drop down to a squat to avoid the seemingly fatal blow, the beads of sweat hovering in the air above him, but he was off balance –he leaned too far to the right. His dominant side. Erebus used the excess momentum of his fist and channeled it into his legs. Leaning to his left, he swung his right leg out to try and kick Deimos completely off balance, to which – again to his surprise – he managed to avoid.

Deimos jumped back to his feet defensively, fists raised and bouncing with his haggard breathing. It was obvious from his face that he was not expecting the speed and intensity in which the fighter was coming at him, he could even see small lines of surprise as if even _he_ was amazed that he managed to dodge the bullet like fist. His eyes darted back towards where the rest of the people were and back to Erebus. This was the point in the fight where it would go downhill for Erebus’ opponent.  They never remembered they were allowed to use weapons and would attempt to attack him using hand to hand combat which just happened to be Erebus’ specialty.

 He slowly stood up cracking his back. He could feel the pull in his neck throughout his body, the small firing of nerves here and there pulling his punches, lessening the power behind his kick. It was a stressful sensation, like trying to run in a dream or through water. You _know_ you can do better, but no matter how hard you try you can’t move any faster. He just needed to ignore the static vibrations long enough to end this. Resetting himself, Erebus was caught off guard to see his opponent with a knife.

Deimos had pulled a switchblade from his back pocket, not bothering to push away the strands of hair sticking to his face. _A knife_? Technically, Erebus was at a disadvantage, but the blade gave him goosebumps. No one had ever pulled a _knife_ on him before, not here anyway. The quiet screaming was back, shrill and piercing just behind the eyes. It made the pit of his stomach tingle with excitement and flash an unnatural smirk.

Without a second thought, he dropped down again, letting the rubber grip of his boots screech against the steel floor as he pushed off towards the fighter, another fist prepared to land. Deimos attempted to side step him, flipping the blade in his right hand outward slashing at the oncoming fist, but Erebus was prepared. This was not his first knife fight.

The blade barely missed his hand as Erebus’ foot connected with Deimos’ stomach with a satisfying _thump_ , dropping him to the floor on all fours. Deimos was coughing, clutching his waist, using the wall to keep his balance as he attempted to rise. From the look on his face, Erebus could tell this was not a new feeling for the fighter. In fact with the speed in which he recovered from the blow had Erebus to believe that he felt that sensation far more often than he should. The information he was receiving from his potential partner’s reactions was keeping him from finishing the fight, but he knew the kid would never last. They never did.  

One final blow and this could be over.

He wobbled over the chaotic cavern, losing balance.

One final, crushing blow and the screaming would stop.

Erebus’ fist loosened open to a claw, aiming to grab the fighter’s face and slam it back into the wall. The screaming at the back of his skull was raging with an uncontrollable heat and he felt like he couldn’t control himself. The only thing he felt stopping him from truly killing his opponent was the static pull against his muscles. Deimos’ face contorted into a mixture of determination and fear as his final step back revealed no place to go. Erebus’ cold dark eyes caught Deimos’ clear blue ones and he hesitated. Erebus everything went numb. The momentum kept him going, but for a split second, there was absolute silence, only his breathing.

For that single moment, Erebus _hesitated_.

Those moments felt as if they were moving in slow motion, never ending. Deimos took a small thrusting step forward just beneath the deadly palm as it grazed past his face.

The room went silent as Erebus hit the wall so hard it sounded like a shotgun blast ricocheting off metal. The pair remained still for what seemed like an eternity, Deimos’ raspy breath echoing throughout the chamber. The heat in the back of Erebus’ skull shifted down to his side and the feeling of control started to tingle into his fingertips. The tight rope gave way to a road of stability.

The small blade protruded just above his left hip and his shirt started growing darker. Deimos stared at what he had done before his legs gave way to the ground. His sweaty tired gaze shot over to Bering and Cain, full of trepidation and worry, waiting for a reaction.

Erebus wasn’t sure how to react. He was just _stabbed_. The time was still ticking, the two minutes weren’t up, he _could_ still win this, but Erebus felt like he had lost. Not only had he hesitated – something he **did** not do- but he was _stabbed._ He stared at the shaking figure on the ground not sure what face he was making.  

Deimos flinched hard as Erebus grabbed a fist full of his shirt and hoisted the shivering man up from the ground when Hemera chimed in on his communicator.

(Is everything alright?)

 _(_ The kid stabbed me.)

(What?)

 _(He **stabbed** me._ )

(You mean, he actually…)

He made the slight movement with his hand and Erebus motioned to his shirt to reveal the small wound that was beginning to turn red. There was a moment of silence between the two of them as they both processed this fact when Hemera burst into an unbridled laughter that made all of the rooms occupants turn.

 

* * *

 

 

Hemera was tapping away at the data pad finalizing the official transfer of partnership.

“ _Why did you let him stab you?_ ”

(I didn’t _let_ him, Hemera. I just-)

Erebus caught himself. He wasn’t quite sure he wanted to go into the psychological turmoil he felt over his hesitation or the odd familiarity he felt in the man. Erebus pulled himself up to his elbows when he heard the door open. 

“Well, that’s a first! I assume this means he’s passed this test?” Bering whistled, ““If we knew all it took was for someone to stab you, we’d have that taken care of this a month ago.”

 Erebus gave a curt nod before slumping back into the bed.

“Hemera, please contact Commander Cook and Commander Hayden to let him know the results, I’m sure they will be very pleased to know this is finally over with. We’ll conduct the navigator’s test once we finalize the paperwork.”

Erebus tuned them out as they started making plans about the logistics of the newly formed partnership. Reaching over, trying to not disturb the nurse as he was finishing up dressing his wound, Erebus snatched the blade from the table and wiped it on his shirt. It was well maintained, sharp, and had him wondering what Deimos could possibly be doing to have to carry such a thing around.

With a snap Erebus broke away from his trailing thoughts. A data pad that was under his nose was requesting his finger print to confirm acceptance of his new partner. A smile laced its way onto Bering’s face.

“Remember the deal Erebus.”

The weight of the situation came crashing down on him with the ugly self-satisfied look of Commander Bering as he encouraged the man to press his finger and his stomach sank. Why did he hesitate? Ho was he going to be able to watch over the small fighter? How was he going to talk to this kid? Should he brush up on sign language? (Why did he hesitate?) Did the kid even _know_ sign language? Should he work on getting a modified speaker to his communication device? (Why?) He couldn’t just have Hemera there all the time. Just ignore him? Yes, that’ll be easier. ( _Why did he hesitate!?)_

Making sure his face did not betray what his thoughts were, Erebus pressed harshly on the screen until it flashed green and slipped the blade in his back pocket. 

When Erebus opened the door to the hall he, caught a glimpse of Deimos with a small, but clearly noticeable smile and Cain who was chatting away about the fight. Cain turned at the sound, puffing his chest proudly over his smaller comrade at the sight of Erebus and his still bloodied shirt. Erebus took note of their familiarity. It was a complete contrast from when he saw the man with the angry blonde one. Deimos was clearly more comfortable with this man, his spatial distance, the softness in his face, the admiring look. They must be close friends he thought, or possibly more? 

Looking at Cain, Erebus suddenly felt annoyed. He could see it in the way he moved that he was arrogant and quick to jump to conclusions.

Erebus frowned hard and nudged Hemera, nodding to the pair to which Cain seemed to perk up.

Hemera put up his hands and shrugged his shoulders. _No idea._

“What!? You got a fucking issue with me?” Erebus didn’t try to hide the distain from reflecting on his face. He was defensive, possibly insecure about his position in the world? Deimos’ eyes furrowed with more worry as Erebus walked a little closer pulling the blade from his back pocket. Cain put up arms, ready to throw down.

“The fuck is your deal!? He already won the fight.”

With one swift movement, Erebus grabbed his wrist and kicked Cain’s foot from underneath him, bringing him flat on back. Deimos, without hesitation, took a defensive step forward before Erebus put a hand up, offering back the closed blade. 

“Rule number one, if at any point you hurt any of this crew, we will throw you out of the air lock, you understand me?” Bering commanded from behind him.

Deimos quickly snatched the blade from his hand and began to help Cain pick himself and his wounded pride from the ground.

Erebus didn’t understand this crew. Everyone was tiny. Everyone was angry. And this kid’s hair was just… ridiculous.

 

 


	4. Chapter 4

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> My notes are at the bottom of this one.

**I** magine sailing on an ocean so vast, there was nothing but clear blue water for miles.

Laying on your back on the smooth comfortable surface.

Letting the gentle rocking of waves relax you.

Warm sun on your face.

A slight smile dancing on your lips.

A cool breeze bringing the smell of him with it.

The gentle touch of him on your cheek.

Your heart swelling, filling your body with a feeling you weren’t sure you were capable of having.

Imagine loving someone so much it hurt.

Falling into the deep ocean that was once a source of peasant joy, now drowning, painfully struggling against the changing currents. Just far enough beneath the surface to reach your hands out for help, sometimes pulling yourself up enough to gasp for air, before being sucked back under. Their face hovering just close enough to see, close enough to smell, close enough to brush your fingers against and touch…

Close enough to see them with someone else.

He learned to swim, occasionally being pulled under, but maintaining a steady stroke. Observe. Adapt. Survive. It was how Deimos managed to make it this far in training, in battle, with people, _in life_. If he was not able to find a way to adapt, if it cut into his possibility of survival above the waves or just at the surface, it needed to be avoided or eliminated. Deimos’ constant struggle beneath the waves was constant, the pain in his chest was permanent, and he quickly grew acclimated to the feeling. He wasn’t going to drown here and like hell he was going to let this current, this _new assignment,_ pull him under.

 

_Step one: observe_

The kick to his stomach dropped Deimos to his knees, but it wasn’t enough to prevent him from standing. This wasn’t the first time he’s experienced this, his small stature made it inevitable for him to _not_ have experienced this in this world. But he had adapted. He eliminated _._ He survived. His quick reflexes allowed him to lean back enough to soften the blow so that the wind wasn’t completely knocked out of him. Deimos staggered upwards with the realization he was backed against a wall, his opponent had a weakness and he had to find it. Deimos was fine with the reassignment, he was fine with being demoted, and he was even fine with possible death. His eyes glanced towards the crowd that had formed outside, Cain was still shouting front and center cheering with an enthusiasm that gave the small man life, for a second he could breathe.

At the sound the boots squealing on the floor, he saw it. The slight hesitation. The break in his momentum. _An opening_.

_Step two: adapt_

Instinct kicked in and without thinking, Deimos dropped down and thrust his blade forward into Erebus’ left side while the man’s hand missed his face by just a few centimeters. The killing intent he had felt before suddenly dissipated and only silence except for his exasperated breathing. Deimos looked at what he had done and a controlled panic began to take over. His eyes shot back over to the crowd, Cain had frozen for a split second before resuming his frantic jumping, clutching Abel’s shoulder.

Bering’s face was harder to understand. Furrowed brows, pursed lips: concern? For who?

Erebus backed away and then grabbed a handful of the fighter’s shirt to yank him from the ground. Deimos flinched hard only to find himself lifted to his feet. The mute man shrugged his shoulders and then motioned to his side that was growing darker. The silence in the room broke as Hemera burst into laughter. Bering’s face of concern relaxed and a grin broke out on his weathered face. Walking into the room he gave a slow clap while Hemera continued to wipe tears from his face.

“I was worried I was going to have to pull up the paperwork for another accidental death-oh ho! That looks concerning,” he said without concern, “Let’s head to the med bay and we’ll finish discussing this outcome,” a firm hand clasped Deimos’ still shaking shoulder, “ya did good son.”

_Step three: survive_

Deimos waited silently outside of the med bay doors tenderly clutching his stomach. For a moment, he thought the waves had pulled him under and the dark abyss was going to drag him down, but apparently he had passed.

Deimos straightened out and saluted allowing his calm look of indifference washed back over his face as Bering stepped into the room, leaving behind Cain. As soon as the door closed-

“Blyat Myshonok! You fucking stabbed a guy _in front of Bering!_ ” Cain clutched his shoulders tightly and with delighted enthusiasm (Deimos could feel the warm sun on his face), “Fuck that was cool. You should have seen Phobos’ face, he was all ‘ _wahh they’re not going to do that to me are they?’”_  

He raised his hands mockingly sticking his tongue out. Cain drabbled on about the brief encounter and Deimos let the warn sun and the cool breeze rush against his skin.

This was the best reward he could ask for and he couldn’t help but smile.

The door opened to reveal Erebus, still wearing the mechanics overalls and bloodied shirt, and Hemera. Cain puffed up in front of Deimos, both proudly and suspiciously – one of his many endearing qualities, but Erebus was taller and clearly stronger than his comrade. Suddenly Deimos felt stressed that Cain was about to say or do something unnecessary.

Erebus motioned to Cain with a look of distain before getting a shrug from Hemera of confusion.

 _Oh no_.

“What!? You got a fucking issue with me?”

Cain never thought through his actions and more often than not Deimos was left to pick up the slack. As the taller approached, Deimos could feel the tension in Cain rising – Cain was very obviously someone who never backed down especially when his alpha dog status had the slight possibility of being threatened.

“The fuck is your deal!? He already won the fight.”

With one swift movement, Erebus grabbed his wrist and kicked Cain’s foot from underneath him, bringing him flat on back. Deimos, without hesitation, took a defensive step forward before Erebus put a hand up, offering back the closed blade.

 “Rule number one, if at any point you hurt a member of this crew, we will throw you out of the air lock, you understand me?” Bering commanded from behind them and the dark haired man rolled his eyes handing Deimos back his cleaned blade. While Deimos recognized that Cain got what he deserved, often and in bulk, it never ceased to stress him watching his fellow fighter be put in his place. Cain brushed aside the small worried hands and jumped up, but Bering’s raised eyebrows brought him from a boil to a simmer. 

 “Congratulations Deimos, normally we would do this in my office, but seeing the circumstances… I’ll just tell you now. You passed with flying colors and Erebus has agreed to the transfer. We will be assigning you a secondary task name for specific missions, but for now you will maintain your current one for the purpose of secrecy. Erebus will be joining you for your missions, training, etcetera, but you will _not_ be joining him on his until approved by myself and Commander Hayden, understood?”

Deimos nodded and before Cain was able to ask what the angry furrows in his face read, Erebus loomed over them pulling out his military ID. It had the face of a much younger man, but beneath his picture, sure enough typed in black, [navigator / fighter]. He flipped it over where the official seal of the Federated Alliance was stamped with a look of _I told you so_ mixed with indifference.

“Our unit is trained to be both fighters and navigators,” Hemera pulled out his own ID that showed the same [navigator / fighter] emblem, “I just wear the navigator’s suit because I like the color,” he gave an apologetic smile and Erebus gave a sarcastic tongue click, “I’ll wear my proper suit once I have a designated partner, so I’m sorry if you assumed I was to be a part of your team. Speaking of which, where did Abel and Phobos go?”

“I sent them over to where their test will be to prep; I believe Cook is there to supervise that assessment. For now, you are dismissed, I expect great things from all of you,” Bering gave a small nod back to Erebus and Hemera’s salute before they left down the hall.

  

* * *

 

 

For the next two days Erebus was a ghost, lurking the dark corridors of the Spartan casually avoiding Hemera and training with his newly assigned partner with an air of indifference. While Hemera did not push for him to show up, his face reflected a smug attitude with a hint of “you’ll come eventually” and it irked Erebus to no end. Deimos just got lucky and there was nothing in his agreement with the commanders that said he needed to actively participate in his training. Or was there? Erebus’ stubborn attitude was only slightly lessened by the twisting and turning of guilt and obligation in his stomach which he vigorously ignored.

Lying underneath his small ship, he stared at jumble of wires with harshly furrowed brows. He could recalibrate the weight for himself and work on figuring out what was causing the craft to lean to the left, but if he had to take into account another person, the inside would need to gutted to fit another seat, the weight would need to be calibrated for _two_ people, how much did that kid weigh? 

Erebus’ set his tools down and slid out from beneath the craft rubbing his temples attempting to stay steadfast in his promise to avoid Deimos. His willful attitude wouldn’t allow himself to get closer to another partner let alone one that was so incredibly _small_. Although his height would make adding the second seat easy enough-

“Hey now, don’t think too hard there, you might hurt yourself.”

Moirai (or Moi as everyone called her) reached out a thin hand, pulling Erebus up from the ground. She was the youngest of his group, not by age, but she was the final addition to his unit before the Tantalus missions were closed. Her dark skin contrasted strongly against her crisp white navigator’s uniform and her piercing brown, almost black, almond eyes made anyone who gazed into them feel as if they were falling. Erebus enjoyed her company, she was very pleasant, quiet and didn’t pry into things that didn’t concern her and the time they spent together was usually in a comfortable silence.

“Āpa kaisē hai?”

She gave a look of playful concern while helping him up and Erebus gave a sigh trying to relax his face.

“I heard you got yourself a fighter? Are you going to recon…figure… ?”

Moi cut her sentence short as she tried to stifle a quiet chuckle, looking between the ship and Erebus’ face contorted again with conflicting emotions, “You know, I recently received my fighter too and he’s actually quite a nice guy,” she placed a comforting hand on his arm as he stared angrily at the ship, “I won’t try and convince you to accept him, but at least give your partner a chance, yeah?”

Erebus clicked his tongue, Moi was right, but he wasn’t ready to admit that.

“Anyway, this is from Hemera.  He wants to meet you on the station to discuss the information, mess hall B, so I would head over there now. You look like you need a break anyway. Namaskāra!”

Slapping a data pad against his chest, she gave a suspicious looking smirk before dipping out of the room.  Erebus narrowed his eyes as she walked briskly from the room before looking at what was in his hands. It was a complicated series of codes and new information gathered from the last mission ran by the Alliance.

As he made his way to meet Hemera, he absorbed himself in the data, some of it looking strangely familiar, but he couldn’t quite place from where. As he rounded the corner to the mess hall absorbed in the Colteron ship configurations, he frowned at the sudden scene he managed to walk into: Cain attempting to fight a man much bigger than himself (not out of the ordinary?), Abel attempting to stop it (he had a look that reminded him of Hemera), but Phobos… Phobos had his hand tightly gripped on Deimos’ arm attempting to pull him away from whatever argument they all seemed to be having, but the look of stress and resistance in Deimos’ eyes-

He placed his fingers in his mouth and let out a short but piercing whistle that caused the entire room to go silent, heads whipping in his direction. Phobos still maintained his grip, seeming to tighten with how startled he was to find the man looming behind him.

With a snap and a point, he shook his head.

(Let him go.)

Porthos turned his attention from Cain, but Erebus snapped again. Although Phobos couldn’t hear him, the look on Erebus’ face was not hard to understand and he quickly dropped the fighters arm.

“Pft, whatever!”

Phobos quickly fled the room with Porthos in tow and the room went back to its murmuring. Erebus gently pushed Deimos over on the bench before taking his own seat, resuming his reading annoyed by his actions.

“I had it handled you know,” Cain sat back down begrudgingly.

Erebus snorted, but didn’t bother to look up from his screen.

“Uh, are you okay?”

“Yeah, are you alright?”

Deimos remained silent to Abel’s inquiry, but gave a small, almost unnoticeable smile towards Cain.

“Oh my, this table is full of tension, what have I missed?” Hemera slid into the table feigning worry.  Abel began to dismiss the tension when Hemera gave Erebus a sly glance. He set down the device and returned the look with more attitude.

Erebus: (What.)

Hemera: (You know what.)

Erebus: (Your partner was touching mine.)

“Oh, is he yours now?”

The table had grown awkwardly silent as the two had their conversation the clearly no one else could hear, but were clearly having. Hemera’s sudden question out loud startled even Erebus.

“Is he talking?”

The table seemed to collectively turn towards Abel who was staring inquisitively between the pair.

“Ah, yes, he was being stubborn about accepting his new partner here,” Hemera nodded towards Deimos.

“How come he can’t speak?” Ethos was sitting quietly observing the situation, only to startle everyone at his comment. _How long had he been there?_

“Oh just because he can’t verbalize his thoughts doesn’t mean he can’t speak. He talks a lot actually,” Hemera avoided the question and Erebus shook his head vigorously, “he can communicate through me or anyone else in our unit, but he doesn’t like to. He thinks it’s a breach of will although we’re all happy to do it for him- yes, before you ask, it  _can_ be fixed, but that's Deimos' job." 

“For being some secret half alien _whatever_ , Deimos stabbed you pretty good,” Cain was pointing at him with a fork and the side of Erebus’ face twitched, “plus I owe you for what you did to me yesterday and from what I can tell there’s nothing that special about you.”

Abel pushed Cain’s hand down with a loud sigh and they began to bicker between each other. Their relationship was a bit more than obvious and Erebus glanced over to out of all the emotions he caught Deimos displaying, jealousy was not among the one’s he was expecting. The group’s dynamics were probably feeding Hemera’s thirst for gossip and knowledge and the more Erebus was there, the more he found out.

 Deimos probably sensed his gaze and for a brief moment his eyes caught the fighter’s- clear blue eyes, the smell of steel and the slight hint of cigarettes. It was all too familiar, bringing back a flash of a memory he had long forgetten and caused the wrinkles on Erebus’ forehead to soften, only to wrinkle hard again with an exasperated sigh as his guilt over the last two days hit him hard. 

He stood up, resolute. He knew Hemera could be manipulative, but he never expected him to put something together this elaborate. Moi was probably in on it and he silently cursed her.

Erebus: (Message me with his weight, I’m leaving.)

Hemera: (What? Where are you going?)

Erebus had been frowning far too much that day, he pressed his finger in between his eyebrows going over all the changes he was about to make.

Erebus: (I have to reconfigure the settings on my ship, it’s not ready to accommodate two people.)

The blond was beaming with unbridled excitement and smugness that caused Erebus’ upper lip to twitch and quickly left the mess hall. He had a new uniform he needed to get.

  

* * *

 

 Deimos woke to soft knocking on his door only to find Erebus was standing quietly waiting outside. He wore the white navigator’s uniform from the waist down, the sleeves wrapped and tied around his hips, and the standard black sleeveless tank most of the fighters wore looking very out of place. It was rare that Deimos would have an altercation that ended in him stabbing the person, only to have them come to his aid. Deimos looked up at the dark haired man with a flash of worry that was returned with a quick confused and analyzing glance before Erebus turned on his heel and walked down the hall, maintaining a pace Deimos could easily follow.

Deimos took this small moment to observe his new navigator – that is if you really wanted to call him that- His folded muscular arms were covered in old cuts and scars, the silver device on his neck stood out with a spidering web like scar surrounding it, contrasting strongly against his tanned skin. More scars peaked from underneath the man’s shirt and he wondered about the freshly made wound on his left side.

Most fighters, even navigators, who had been in combat rarely, had such extensive wounds inflicted on them: piloting a starfighter either meant you survived the battle with a few scratches or you went down with your ship. Anything more than that was caused by other people, but Erebus supposedly fought face to face with the Colteron, something nearly unheard of, on a regular basis and survived.

They maintained their silence through the halls until they reached the training bay while Deimos contemplated these facts, a seeping feeling of inadequacy pooling at the base of his stomach. Erebus motioned to the simulator as he started pressing buttons on the side before stepping inside on the navigator’s side. Deimos hopped in, doubt beginning to creep into the back of his mind.

_(Hit!)_

Bering gave him a cryptic message about fixing Erebus and how it would make sense later. This man was some weird alien mix, how was he supposed to fix him?

_(Hit!)_

He wasn’t sure what was to be expected of him. Alone he was fine, he could handle himself on his own, but others, others were unpredictable.

_(Miss!)_

If he failed would he still be sent home?

_(Miss!)_

Half way through the simulation, it stopped and Deimos heard an annoyed knock for him to come out. He tried to maintain a look indifference, a calm, collected poise, but it felt like his heart was going to burst from his chest, he was nervous. His imagined failure weighed on him hard and this was the usual point in training when Phobos or anyone raised their hands to him in frustration. He quickly jumped from the pod only to be face to face with the taller man.

Deimos gave a startled jump as two large hands calmly clasped his face, griping him firmly yet gently forward. Waiting for the blow to come he flinched again when he suddenly felt Erebus’ thumbs on his temple, making small circles, and a loud deliberate intake of air. Deimos slowly opened his eyes looking up at the man who again took an exaggerated breath of air through his nose and slowly let it out of his mouth, still rubbing his temples. He furrowed his brows in confusion which was met with a hard head squeeze and Erebus raising his eyebrows, sucking in air again nodding at him.

_Relax and breathe._

Deimos took in a breath through his nose and let it slowly out from his mouth with a slight eyebrow raised. Erebus gave a firm nod, seemingly pleased his partner understood the message he was trying to communicate. Again, Deimos took another breath in through his nose and out his mouth, Erebus following along still gently rubbing his temples. After a few more, he gave a firm pat and motioned back to the simulator. Deimos nodded, stepping back in taking a good deep breath before the simulation started again.

Thirty minutes went by and Deimos was… impressed. Despite Erebus’ appearance, he was a fantastic navigator, quickly catching on to Deimos’ habits and short comings and adjusting the settings. They quickly made it through two simulations, before a loud slap startled the fighter. The pod opened up to reveal Cain and Abel going over their training data.  Erebus snatched the device from their hands, looked it over, and gave a satisfied nod before handing it over to him.

“The _fuck_ Deimos,” Deimos flashed a look of worry between the scores and Cain, the fickle moods of his comrade always kept him on his toes, especially when it came to threatening who was number one on this station. The water’s current was pulling him under again and he felt like he was forgetting to breathe when a firm hand grabbed hand clasped his shoulder pulling him from the waves. Erebus gave another short nod and then turned to Cain with a look of concentrated annoyance waving him away.

The scores were surprisingly great, nearly competing with Cain and Abel’s…

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> FINALLY WE'RE GETTING SOMEWHERE. Getting some of that, character development huh? Huh??  
> Finally this chapter is done, holy crap it took so long. Writing from Deimos' perspective was something I toiled away on because I didn't want to make broad character assumptions. BUT OH WELL.  
> Took some canon events and shifted them around a bit. The mess hall scene in Chapter 3 is one of my /favorites/ and I always wondered what Erebus would do if he walked in on that. Probably get defensive over his new puppy, why they rough touchin' on his stuff??
> 
> Moirai speaks Hindi~ she really likes speaking it, but not a lot of people can talk with her, so she just chats away to Ee sometimes. Since he can't really respond, he just listens, it makes Hemera jealous sometimes.


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry it's been so long. I have not abandoned this. As soon as I posted the fourth chapter (which was rushed and I hate everything about it but WHATEVER) my friend from Japan came in and I was focused on him.
> 
> I DID start an Erebus RP blog aka just a place to write about him some more. It took me so long to update because I was too busy pumping out 2-3k word prompts about him and you guys have no idea how much I LOVE writing about Ee jkdfhkjgshdjg It's really great and I love getting questions about pretty much anything, so head over there @ sylentee.tumblr.com  
> I write a lot about his background and habits in the about-erebus tag, so check it out.  
> If any mannerisms have changed, it's probably because I have a much more solid hold on Erebus' personality and how I want him to be. While it's taken me a really long time to update, I think my writing has improved a bit, so hopefully you all can forgive me.
> 
> Anyway, enough self promotion, here's the long awaited chapter 5

Deimos’ ability to fade into the background is what made the small fighter so formidable, many people under estimated him, but Erebus, not being able to say a word, managed to bring him to the forefront of people’s attention. Deimos’ unapproachable attitude was a given on the station, but Erebus’ overall demeanor would turn a few heads, not to mention the height difference.

The two days after their first training session, Erebus would softly knock on his bunk door, walk with him to the training bay, run through the first few simulations, and then give him a short nod of approval.  Nothing more, nothing less, before disappearing only to show up again briefly for the few training sessions Hemera would have with the five of them. That left time for Deimos to skitter back into the shadows unnoticed, follow the people he needed to follow, report his findings, and then slink back into his bunk before the next morning.

The next day, the knock came a little later than normal, but the man carried a small mug of hot dark coffee and handed it to the fighter. Deimos shook his head, confused why the navigator would offer him anything, let alone coffee, but with squinted eyes, Erebus shoved the cup into his hands. There was a moment of stubborn glares as neither seemed willing to deviate from what they wanted to do, but Deimos’ ability to deflect headstrong _bullshit_ was at an all-time high. Dealing with Cain had lead him to this moment.

Staring at the cup, he took a small sip of the bland bitter liquid and Erebus raised his eyebrows slightly, trying not to look too expectant. Standard Alliance coffee was disgusting – imagine drinking already used intensely bitter coffee grounds mixed in hot water that would then linger even after the hot liquid left your mouth - and Deimos quickly handed the cup back after taking his obligated taste. Erebus looked at the cup, took his own small sip, and then frowned hard with a look of revolting disgust before reverting back to his stoic poise walking down the hall, dumping it in a nearby trash chute.

Training, nod of approval, follow Abel (who wasn’t that interesting to follow in the first place), eat, sleep. Repeat?

The same event happened the next day, a little later than the previous day, same mug of coffee, but this time it was much lighter. Again Erebus forced the cup in Deimos’ hand and watched with an expectant look as he took his obligatory sip. It was horribly sweet and Deimos couldn’t hide his displeasure as he handed it back to the man. Erebus took his small sip and shrugged quite pleased. He took another self-satisfied drink before walking down the hall again, only pausing momentarily to make sure the fighter was following behind.

 _Was this going to happen again tomorrow?_ Deimos didn’t want to try any more horrible coffees, it was not how he enjoyed being woken up, and it showed on his face. A small part of him was annoyed by the effort, but not as annoyed as he thought he would be. It seemed as if the other was attempting some sort of _bond_. Pointless, but appreciated.

As they rounded the corner to the training bay, a smooth voice called down from the hall.

“Erebus! Ee! Rukō!” With half a shaved head on one side and long dark curly hair on the other, a woman called to Erebus from the end of the hall. She quickly made her way over and gave a bright smile to the two of them.

“Ah! So is this your fighter?” She gave a small bow to Deimos, “I’ve heard quite a bit about you. I’m Moirai, or everyone calls me Moi. Everything is going well I hope?”

He gave a nod in response; the question didn’t deserve anything more. She was quite bubbly and seemed like the type to carry on a conversation regardless of the other person’s participation. It was probably why she hung out with the mute so much…

“Just as silent as Ee, I see? Well I’m glad to see things are going well. He can be horribly stubborn and hard to get to know (Erebus snorted before taking another sip from his mug), but once he warms up to you, he’ll never let you down. It seems like he’s already placed quite a bit of trust in you, seeing as you are going to fix his-“

Erebus clapped a hand over her mouth and tried to casually drink his coffee with the other only to have it slosh back into his nose. Moi flashed a look of _that’s what you deserve_ before turning back to Deimos.

“Anyway… seems he’s not ready to cross that bridge just yet, but! If he gives you any trouble, you let me know, ok? I have to go meet my fighter for lunch, so I’ll see you around, alright?”

She gave another small bow before walking away with a knowing smile. Erebus was pulling the bottom of his shirt out from his waist to wipe his face when Deimos managed to catch a glimpse of the man’s stomach. There was the small standard medical patch covering what Deimos assumed were the stitches from the wound he managed to inflict on him, but surrounding it was a scar the rippled deep from his left side to right nearly touching his navel. It was old, the edges were smoothed out, but it looked painful and jagged. Whatever caused it surely brought the man close to death and the casual conversation and events made him forget who he was dealing with. Made him forget _what_ he was dealing with.  

The next morning, there came no knock. Erebus didn’t show for training, and wasn’t seen for most of the day until Deimos received a call from Hemera to meet in the usual room for their lecture. Deimos strolled into the training room with his usual look of indifference to a scene that should have surprised him.

Now he wasn’t the most perceptive of people, but Cain occasionally picked up on the subtleties of human body language and the lines of indignation on Erebus’ face drove him up a wall. Cain had his foot on top of the table shouting obscenities at a taller man who was squinting his eyes slightly with a cool look of indifference.

“I DON’T CARE THAT YOU’RE SOME HALF BREED WHATEVER, I COULD KICK YOUR ASS RIGHT HERE RIGHT NOW”

“Cain, can we please get back to what we’re talking about?”

“We’re talking about HOW THIS GUY CALLED ME AN ASSHOLE”

“He can’t talk, he can’t call you anything…”

“I can see it in his eyes Abel, HE’S CALLING ME AN ASSHOLE”

Hemera tried to interject waving his hands.

“How about we all just calm down and get back to the briefing...”

Erebus put his hands up as if defeated and motioned for Hemera to come closer. He pulled out a cord from the device in his neck and connected to the back of the shorter blonde’s and-

"Hey Cain, you’re right, you’re an asshole.”

Erebus quickly yanked the cord out as Hemera covered his mouth in horror and Cain lunged at him from across the table. Within seconds Cain was face down on the ground with the short haired man’s knees in his back.

Deimos sat down a seat away from Abel as was the custom both by choice and necessity, so that Cain could sit between them once he finished jumping to conclusions. Abel was a constant hand pulling him under the water and the farther he was away from him, the better he felt. On cue, Erebus looked up at Deimos and released the still screeching man from the floor. Abel walked over and pushed Cain back into the seat between him and Deimos, still mumbling obscenities. Deimos had noticed that his newly appointed partner would only joke so far before backing off flashing a quick subtle look of annoyed disapproval once he entered the room.

Hemera gave Erebus a look that a disapproving mother would give a child before resuming his explanation.

“The answer to your question Abel, there are 10 of us here on the station, Erebus, myself and eight others. While we all work independently of each other, we’re all very well connected. They may be hard to distinguish but they all have the same device on their necks as we do. They also have their own partners they are working with, so I’m not sure how much of them you’ll actually see. There is no need for all of us to be in the same room unless we’re on a mission together.”

Abel nodded typing more notes away into his data pad, before firing off another question.

 “Do you all keep your distance from each other because of the whole _alpha_ thing? How does that work?”

Erebus gave a snort before folding his arms and leaning back in the chair he was in.

“…no... We just spent a year in the Spartan together, we just need our space. As for the _alpha_ … right now, it’s _him_ ,” he motions towards Erebus who was clearly not paying attention, “but that can be a conversation for another day. Two alphas can’t be together in the same place, it would be like having, I dunno, _two queen bees_ or two pack leaders in the same place.  Nothing good will come of it.”

“Has there ever been more than one?”

“Asking the really tough questions, haha… yes, but he’s on a different ship right now, as I said before, nothing good will come with them being on the same area.”

“Then how come _you two_ are always together?” Cain surprisingly coming out of the blue with a question.

“I’ve been tasked to be Erebus’ translator… if you will. Our neck devices can also plug into each other’s via a small cord, so he’s capable of using my voice to speak through. He really hates doing it, but our superiors don’t want to have to _read_ everything he has to say or to learn the archaic language of signing.” Hemera ended with a small laugh.

Abel continued to ask questions and Hemera continued to drabble on about the finer points of what he and Erebus were.  He seemed to be enjoying it and under normal circumstances, Deimos would have paid more attention, but an elbow nudged his side. With a somewhat startled glance, he was met with Cain’s narrowed gaze.

 _You better be doing what you’re supposed to be doing_.

A gaze that spoke volumes. A gaze that made him flinch. It was a reminder that after this, Deimos needed to be watchful and mindful of _Cain’s things_.

“-We can also plug into computers for very _very_ basic needs, pretty much for typing or scanning raw data, but that’s it. Oh, well, I suppose they do much more than that, but that’s all they’re capable of with raw technology-ah, it seems I have a call. Excuse me, you all can leave for the day, take it as a rest day.”

Cain gave a short good bye to Abel before darting off to _whatever_ it was that he needed to do, leaving behind the rest of them. The blonde navigator stayed a short while, hovering near Hemera until he was finished talk, and immediately began asking questions again.  Deimos took his time leaving the room, only wishing he could hear a bit more of what they were saying, but before he reached the doorway, he felt a slight tug at his shirt.

With a disgusted twist, he was met with Erebus and another goddamn cup of coffee. Glancing behind the large man, he saw Abel still chatting away with Hemera and decided that this was a well needed cover for what he was really doing. Without hesitation, Deimos clasped the cup and took a sip, completely prepared to spit it out, but was _pleasantly_ surprised. It was… bearable… still a little bitter, but a soft sweet aftertaste. He met eyes with Erebus whose face broke into a cheap smirk, one filled with a sense of smug pride and Deimos was instantly filled with annoyance. Him finding out how he liked coffee was asinine and if he thought he _learned anything_ about him from it, then Erebus was sorely mistaken.

Deimos glanced behind the fighter again only to see that Abel and Hemera were gone. _Fuck_.

With a harsh shove, he thrust the mug back into Erebus and dashed off without a word.

 

* * *

  

Erebus was suddenly _exhausted_.  Not being able to speak was one thing, but it gave people the assumption that they had to fill whatever silence between them with _noise_ and that his lack of interjection was consent to continue rambling. He learned a lot about people this way, but more often than not he allowed them to simply _think_ he was listening.  With that being said, not having to respond gave him time to observe the minute mannerisms of others, learning more about them than he obviously wanted to and the interpersonal relationships of everyone on this ship was driving him up a goddamn wall.

It was clear Cain was fucking his navigator and that he was high strung about it. It was also clear that Abel probably cared more about Cain than he realized.  

Deimos was fairly easy to read as well. The slight shifts in his attitude and facial expressions made him far easier to read than people gave him credit for especially when it came to Cain, but Cain was too busy trying to mark his territory like a dog to take notice. Deimos was in- _something_ with the other fighter, whether it be _love_ , or friendship, or a crush, whatever it was, it was obvious if you took the time to look. The thing that confused Erebus was if there actually _was_ anything between them -not that it mattered – so long as Deimos was capable of being a respectable partner, Erebus could care less what his relationships were.  His job was simply to let the man die, not take care of his ego.

Hemera, on the other hand, thought otherwise, and made it very apparent right away that _friendship_ was the key to having a smooth sailing working relationship, constantly pushing him to be _nice_. “Get to know him a little” constantly being mothered at him from a far. It took two days of intense nagging before Erebus decided that he’d try and make _some_ sort of effort, even if it was just to get Hemera off his back. Something trivial…

Coffee. A simple gesture, but it said a lot about a person’s palette. It didn’t involve really _getting to know_ the other person and Deimos seemed like the last person who would want to go through with that anyway.  Easy. **Done**. He could claim an effort was made.

But of course it would never be that easy.

The small fighter, after ever training session, would disappear off into the rest of the ship, which would have been fine had Erebus not caught a slight glimpse of the man here and there in places that were just _odd_ for him to be in. His morbid curiosity to what his partner was up to dissipated at first, only to peak when he rushed off shoving the mug back in his hands, leaving him alone in the briefing room. There seemed to be a direct correlation between where Deimos ended up and where _Abel_ happened to be. Hemera and Abel had been spending more time together over the last few days, and Erebus nearly crashed into Deimos in the hall walking in to meet them. Maybe he pegged the man wrong – maybe it _wasn’t_ Cain he was interested?

 _No,_ he was _not_ about to go down that road. He finally figured out how Deimos liked his coffee, that was all he needed to know. He didn’t need to meddle in his affairs. Finding out this drama was Hemera’s forte, not his.

The rest of the day, Erebus’ face was in a perpetual frown as he tried to busy himself with _anything_ but what in the hell Deimos was doing and that fucked up love triangle.  He even attempted to continue the modifications of his ship which only annoyed him more when he burned out a data chip by overloading it. He’d have to go back onto the station for another.

Stepping off the lift, Erebus heard a clatter from down the hall; it was normally empty over here. The spare ship parts were locked away in the lower levels of the station, mostly mechanics and engineers went down there, if at all, so what was…? A voice? His innate curiosity and hunter personality drove him to find its source. The hallway T’d off in two directions, so he paused, listening.

“ _What did I tell you about doing that!?_ ”

Now _that_ was a familiar voice. Crass, brutish, and harsh _: Cain_. But who was he speaking to? Erebus waited for someone else’s voice, the sound of a fist hitting skin, or the _thwump_ of a body hitting the floor, but there was only the slight shuffling of feet and a door opening.

“Just keep trailing him like you’re _supposed_ to be and don’t fuck it up. Come back when you’ve got something good to tell me.”

Erebus felt that whatever was happening, he was _not_ supposed to see it and wormed his way into a nearby storage unit. Sure enough, unknowing of his presence, Cain briskly walked by lighting a cigarette completely unfazed by whatever transpired before taking off in a sprint towards the end of the hall.

Erebus opened the door, pausing a while longer.  There _was_ a second person, right? If there was - then they were still there… He feigned concern – he had to check on the person to make sure they were ok. What if they were hurt down here all by themselves? He tried to play it as casually as he possibly could and walked in the direction from where Cain came from. Rounding the corner to the dimly lit corridor, slumped on the ground there was a figure that caught Erebus completely by surprise. The small head jerked upwards at the sound of his footsteps and in a frightening moment, Deimos and Erebus made eye contact.

 


	6. Chapter 6

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> YEAH SO. REMEMBER WHEN I SAID I WAS GOING TO GET CHAPTER 6 OUT FASTER THAN BEFORE.  
> I'M A GODDAMN LIAR.   
> I got really really REALLY unmotivated to write this-- my writing has improved so much since I started this and looking at the previous chapters just made me cringe, BUT I got it back (sorta) and I felt bad that I had half the chapter written and just never posted it. I took down how many chapters this trash was going to be because I honestly have no idea anymore.   
> I will be working hard to get better at getting this over with since a few people have been asking about it.  
> ANYWAY-- HERE YOU GO

Erebus froze staring at the crumpled figure on the floor, his mouth tightening as he suddenly started connecting the dots. Deimos’ face flushed with rage and embarrassment, immediately looking away. Picking himself off of the floor, he hastily made his was way towards Erebus in an attempt to leave the man’s presence.

As Deimos drew closer, Erebus quickly ran through his knowledge of the situation, the smell of sexual tension wafted through the air, making it clear _something_ did in fact just happen between Deimos and Cain and that Cain was going to have none of it.

_Cain was having relations with his navigator Abel? Fact._

_Deimos having one-sided feelings for Cain? Now confirmed fact._

_Cain was an ass? Also a fact._

_Despite Cain’s personality defects, he genuinely cared about his navigator? …fact?_

Erebus’ eyes were narrowing and his tight-lipped smile was fading into a grimace.

_Cain had Deimos trailing Abel to keep tabs on him?_ Cain was possibly using Deimos’ affections for his own gain…?

The harder he thought about the situation, the more confused he got. No matter how he spun it in his head, something wasn’t right and Deimos was getting the short end of the stick. He didn’t like it. He did not like it one bit and he was going to get to the bottom of it.

Deimos was almost upon him when he made a choice.

Deimos quickly whipped out the blade that was neatly stashed in his back pocket as Erebus put his hand out to stop him from passing. Erebus rolled his eyes - _not again -_ Erebus grabbed hold of Deimos’ wrist and twisted outward hard, his other hand slamming the boy against the wall by his neck. The knife clattered to the ground a few feet away and the corridor filled with the sounds of Deimos’ stifled breathing. This is **not** how he imagined this happening. He thought Deimos was much smarter than a _stab now ask questions later_ kind of guy.

“ARGHH!?”

The oversized navigator swiftly dropped the fighter and then picked him up by the waist, throwing him over his shoulder with ease. Storming down the hall, he could feel Deimos struggling to reach for something in his back pocket to which he simply smacked his hands away with his free hand. As Erebus rounded a third corner into the main hall, he could feel the heartbeat of his victim increase and his struggling continued making it hard to walk.

He halted in front of a small group of navigators that stopped talking to witness the scene before them. Erebus planted Deimos firmly on the ground and swiftly commenced patting down the fighter’s body. If he were to hide a second knife, where would he…? _There it is._ Erebus slipped his fingers into the back lining of Deimos’ pants pulling out another knife to an encore of rosey cheeks and ‘oh my’s from the onlookers. Deimos’ face was showing more emotion than Erebus thought was capable, but he didn’t stop to admire the view. Placing the knife into his own front pocket, Erebus again grabbed the fighter over his shoulder and continued on.

[ _Hey Pontus_.]

The dark haired man looked up from his data pad.

[ _Oh, uh, Ee, what’s that you have there? Oh, sorry, hold on._ ]

“What’s going on?”

Pontus always made it a point to use verbal communication around those who didn’t have communicators. He never wanted anyone to think he was speaking badly about them, unless he was of course.

[Have you seen Abel? Blonde kid, navigator… hangs with the angry blue haired one - Cain _._ ]

“I think I just saw them head towards the hanger-“

[Thanks, oh, also, come with, I need your mouth _._ ]

[That’s such a gross way to ask for a translator, I hope you know that.]

Pontus gave a heavy sigh and Erebus continued on his mission ignoring the quizzical look his comrade gave him. Just before they reached the gates, Cain appeared as if on cue. Plopping Deimos down, Erebus grabbed the back of Cain’s shirt and spun him around to face them.

“What the fuck? Is that Deimos?”

Erebus snapped his fingers at him for silence as he plopped the fighter down next to Cain. He then looked to Pontus expectantly.

“Ee, uh, Erebus says that you can no longer use his fighter for your dirty work. If you want someone to spy on Abel… to do it yourself…” Pontus trailed off. There was an intense moment of awkward and confused silence that followed, Pontus clearly not understanding what he was dragged into.

Cain’s face turned from surprise to one of disgust, “As if I have someone spying on Abel.”

Erebus snapped again and pointed at Cain and then to Deimos, this time an anger he didn’t think was there started to swell in his chest. He didn’t care what these people did, he didn’t care what fucked up sense of betrayal he felt these _children_ were doing, but he couldn’t stop himself. He was fucking around in things that shouldn’t matter to him and it fueled the frustration in him like a disease.

[ _This piece of shit-_ Pontus, let me borrow you for a moment]

Pontus gave a heavy sigh as Erebus plugged in.

_“I guess that makes you a fucking liar too, what, so you don’t trust your own navigator?"_

“I said I don’t have anyone spying on Abel, and even if I was, it’s none of your damn business what happens to my navigator.”

"Does Abel know?"

“Does Abel know _what_.”

"Does he know he’s got a piece of chicken shit for a fighter that doesn’t trust him?"

_There it is_ , Erebus hit just the right nerve for Cain to whip around and as if the heavens aligned, Hemera and Abel turned the corner towards them.

“Oh, hey guys, is… is something the matter?”

“I was just telling your fighter that he needs to leave Deimos out of his plots to track you on the ship.”

“What? Ha, r _ight_ , as if Cain would-“

Before Abel could finish the sentence, Cain threw a punch that would have hit Erebus square in the jaw had Pontus not reacted first, yanking the fist from the air and twisting it around, bringing the fighter to his knees. Pontus quickly released him and gave a sheepish apology before Erebus continued on his rant.

 “Cain, you’re a liar and a _betrayer_. You trust him so little; you’re willing to use your friend – possibly your **only** friend – to spy on your _more than obvious_ **partner.** You’re willing to use the people around you in an attempt to better yourself without any thought to who you may hurt in the process. **I don’t like you.** _I don’t trust you._ And I sure as hell don’t trust any man willing to follow orders from a piece of shit like you.” 

His words ended with a cold gaze at Deimos who seemed to get slightly smaller, but who quickly turned away with a click of his tongue. Erebus felt as if he overreacted, and quickly unplugged himself from Pontus and stormed off. Behind him he could hear Abel, “You had people _spying on me!?_ ”


	7. Chapter 7

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I've been playing around with formatting, so my apologies right now about how some of the chats are time stamped, some aren't, some don't have their full names - I kept time stamped chats as ones that are being recorded/monitored by the Alliance, non-time stamped are archived for later access. 
> 
> Things I will probably stop doing - writing from Deimos' perspective because y i k e s. As much as I love him, I don't think I have that great of a grasp of him as I'd like //enough to write him//
> 
> Ahhhh sorry about the wait again. This chapter was really heard for me to write because it's the transitional phase and I'm just... ugghhhh  
> I'd say chapters will come out faster now that the hard bit is done, but! I! am! not! confident! of that!

One of the perks of being connected to one another was being able to always have some sense of how each member of the unit was feeling within a certain range. Out of politeness, they all agreed to try to ignore such feelings on a regular day-to-day basis. It made them feel normal and gave a sense of privacy even if there wasn’t any. However, when an emotion was felt strong enough, it effected everyone whether they wanted it to or not.

So when Erebus had what Hemera considered to be his _tantrum_ , the bond instantly felt the annoyance, anger and frustration smack him in the face, waking him up from his rather pleasant conversation with Abel. With a deep breath, he calmed himself and the emotions faded into something that surprised him – guilt.

“Oh no… this is bad... “

He gave a thoughtful hum as he stared at Erebus’ back storming off down the hall. _How he became squad leader with that attitude, he would never know_.

Hemera looked at Pontus who had been at ground zero for the rippling emotions that was Ee and he looked tired. The downside to the perk – it took a lot out of everyone connected when the main source of their connection was stressed.

Pontus: […want me to check on him?]

Hemera: [No, go lay down. We should give him some time to simmer and I need to make sure these three are ok--]

“THIS IS BAD!? THIS IS BAD!?? YEAH IT IS. IM GOING TO KICK HIS ASS IS WHAT—WHAT ABEL”

Things clearly weren’t ok.

This was an _unfortunate_ turn of events… and just as he was getting Erebus to stop being so goddamn depressing all the time. Abel quickly interjected and the two were suddenly bickering like a married couple in the hall. Hemera couldn’t help but think it was cute in a way. They stormed off down the opposite end of the hall with harsh whispers and accusations and Deimos was already turning away.

“Ah! Deimos, wait, please—“

The dark haired man halted with the weariness of the day’s events painted on his face.

“It seems that Cain and Abel have a bit to discuss…” Hemera glanced over at the billowing cloud of awkward rage that radiated from the pair and decided that it was best if he only got himself involved in **one** awkward pairing instead of a two. Deimos, on the other hand, had a glazed look of acceptance on his face and caused the blonde to clench his teeth.

“Deimos… listen, he didn’t mean what he said, he’s just…” the blond was trying to do damage control, but it was obvious he was far better at causing damage than preventing it and the dark haired man in front of him looked like he was ready to escape into whatever hovel it is he came from.

“-he just… I’m not quite sure how your relationship is with _Cain_ , but Erebus… _Ee_ , is rather… complicated? I think is the best word to describe him… He’s usually a man of few words,” he paused again for dramatic effect, but the mood clearly did not call for mute jokes and he coughed slightly, “ _ahem_ but, the thing is… It takes a lot for us to trust someone with what we are and we’ve been thrown into a bureaucratic mess that no one wants. We have to trust each other and we _have_ to be able to trust our partners. Our lives depend on it. Unfortunately for you… you’re like… I’m not sure how to put this, _special_?” Hemera was trying not to drone on, but he felt this was important for Deimos to not absolutely hate Erebus after all of this, “You’re considered one of us now, so for him to see _whatever it is_ that happened, he’s quick to jump to conclusions and defend what’s his to protect… I guess—“

Hemera was surprised that the man in front of him hadn’t left yet, but he seemed to be listening or at least considering the information and the blond couldn’t help but chirp back, pleased with the subtle reaction.

“Well, he’ll come around, just give him some time. I’ll… I’ll think of something. He was… _very_ close to his last partner and takes these – _partnerships_ – **very** seriously… What’s **his** is **his** sort of thing. He wouldn’t be this upset if he didn’t care. He’s surprisingly a big baby. _Mostly_ all bark and no bite… He’s probably moping somewhere feeling bad about his tantrum,” he chuckled knowing exactly where Erebus was, “just, don’t hate him yet, ok? Give him a minute to calm down, I’m sure he’ll come back to apologize. _I promise_.”

The blond looked down at Deimos hoping he was fixing something, _anything_ that happened over the last few minutes, but the fighter simply stared as if asking if it was alright to leave now.

“I’ve… talked too much - I’m going to go and see if…”

The small man was already turning on his heel again.

 

* * *

 

 Following the radiating angst he could feel from his leader, Hemera rounded the corner to the observation deck to see the silhouette of the shaved headed man. Strong shoulders sagged – ah, he already knew he was there – and Hemera briefly closed his eyes to take in the sensations the man was giving off. After a moment, it came in clear like a satellite picking up radio waves: Erebus was feeling _shame_.

 _Adorable!_ Hemera thought to himself, suddenly feeling like a mother watching her child learn the consequences of their actions: a sense of pride and pity.

He was leaning against the railing with a mean pout on his face and didn’t turn but acknowledged the blonds presence with a heavy sigh and a slow rumble rolled through their communicators as he approached.

E: […I may have… overreacted...]

Hemera let out a laughing huff as he slid in close to Erebus leaning on his arm slightly.

H: [You think? Maybe you should go apologize.]

Erebus turned in an offended manner and they both looked at each other in silence as they tried to comprehend how much that _wasn’t_ going to happen. The blond couldn’t help but chuckle at how stubborn he was being and he pulled the glasses from his face, plopping them playfully onto Erebus’. He was clearly uncomfortable, but he didn’t move, squinting at him through the frames.

H: [I know you’re nervous.]

E: [I’m not nervous.]

H: [Wow, _be more defensive_. It’s ok to be nervous. It’s the new guy and he’s coming in, touching all your stuff, all of _you-know-who’s_ stuff, and you’re not used to sharing all your toys—]

[Don’t talk to me like I’m a fucking kid.]

“ _Then stop acting like one_ ,” he hissed back, the words lashing out harshly through the silence they were just in, pushing the glasses into the man’s forehead. His normal mothering attitude switching instantly, “you need to remember you’re the new kid here and _they’re not like us_. Get that through your head…”

The taller man scowled and turned away, but Hemera wasn’t finished.

“Did you have that speech all thought out in your head? Hmm? Someone a little jealous? Is that what we’re getting at? Remember when you came bursting into the mess hall all _grrrr let him goooo grrrrr_ ,” he kept nudging at his arm for emphasis and after no response, Hemera finally decided to go in for the kill.

“You know… he does look a bit like Nicholas.”

 E: […I don’t know what you’re talking about.]

Erebus went ridged and he let out a long hiss.

H: [If you’re going to lie, you need to do a better job at it than that.]

E: [He doesn’t… he doesn’t look like Nichol _\-- Nyx_.]

H: [What did I just tell you about lying. He’s definitely not as skinny, _that’s_ for sure, and Nyx couldn’t hold a knife to save his life--]

E: [Why are we talking about this.]

The voice coming through the communicator was tired and the tone was filled with passive annoyance.

H: […we’re talking about this because _you don’t_ talk about this.]

E: [You know I can’t.]

H: [No, you _won’t_ , and there’s a difference. I am in no place to tell someone when to stop _mourning_ , but if it’s going to affect your work, then _it’s my job_ to make sure you’re ok. Both as your second in command and your friend.]

Erebus stared hard out into the darkness of space and Hemera could see the gears turning in his head.   _Cute. He was thinking~_

He finally caved and gave a reluctant nod as he looked around as if searching for some answer, becoming far more animated.

E: [I mean, it just pissed me off, ok? He’s just using him for his own fucked up reasons and--]

H: [Ee, listen, I’m going to put this into perspective for you. If you had Nyx right now, and you knew what you knew about him _and_ you had a friend who was willing to keep watch on him when you weren’t around to make sure he was ok, would you?]

E: [I mean – that’s different-- ]

H: [It’s really not. Cain is a fucking terror, we can all agree on that, _it’s in his file_ , but he worries for his partner.]

E: [They’re fucking, right?]

H: [Totally, _but that’s not the point_ , don’t change the subject. You can’t be mad at him OR DEIMOS. It’s not your place, especially since you would do it too given the opportunity. Or think about it this way, if I asked you to keep an eye on my partner, would you?]

E: [Yeah, but--]

Hemera silenced him with a finger.

H: [You can’t pick and choose when it’s ok, you hypocrite.]

He watched as the gears turned some more. _He’ll figure it out._

H: [You know, you look pretty good in glasses--]

A sharp buzz shot across their communicators and a familiar voice faded in.

[Please report to the briefing room 14-C for mission briefing starting at 1815 hours]

Hemera clapped his hands together with sarcastic delight.

“Perfect timing! A mission, so you can avoid the responsibility of facing your actions a little longer. Think about what I said, you don’t have to agree with it, but at least try to understand.”

 

* * *

 

Moirai (18:56): [If you stare any harder at me, I might burst into flames, Ee.]

He stared across the small transport ship at his youngest unit member with a look that clearly showed he wasn’t actually looking at her, but the burning intensity in which he stubbornly refused to accept Hemera’s earlier words resounded throughout his mind.  She chuckled uneasily as Erebus blinked back into existence and gave a small wave in apology.

Moirai (18:56): [Where is everyone else? Beyla?]

Pontus (18:57): [I hear Beyla is sick – coughing up some black stuff, she’s in med bay under observation.]

Moirai (18:57): [But only we were called in? Is she going to be ok?]

Pontus (18:57): [I haven’t been able to sense her… so I don’t know…]

Hemera (18:57): [-sigh- I wish we didn’t have to do this anymore]

Pontus (18:57): [Hemera, you liar, you get all goofy eyed and excited when you’re out there-]

Hemera (18:57): [I! I do not!]

Pontus (18:57): [We all do, don’t hide it, embrace it~]

Moirai (18:57): [Isn’t this just a regular scouting mission?]

Pontus (18:57): [Ha! That’s a lie or else they wouldn’t need us getting involved]

Moirai (18:57): [I don’t see why they couldn’t get the regular fleet to do it.]

Hemera (18:57): [I was hoping to bake bread…]

Pontus (18:57): [I hope it’s not as terrible as your cookies.]

Hemera (18:57): [WHY. I. NEVER.]

Moirai (18:57): [Maybe it’s because of how close we are to shipping off into enemy space?]

Hemera (18:57): [My baking is perfectly fine]

Pontus (18:57): [ _You gave us all food poisoning Hemera_ ]

Moirai (18:57): [Maybe it’s because they don’t want us getting restless since we’re so spOooOOOokkKKKkkYyyyYYyyy]

Hemera (18:57): [OR MAYBE it’s because their scans report the entire ship to be empty and the last time someone went into something abandoned out in space, Ee was involved.]

Erebus (18:58): [They should have left me back on base then.]

Hemera (18:58): [Oooh~ His majesty finally decided to join us]

Moirai (18:58): [ _Ee,_ are you going to be ok? You’ve been acting funny.]

Hemera (18:58): [He’s just pouting because he stepped on his cat. He and his fighter had a little tiff--]

Moirai (18:58): [Is _that_ why we all felt him get angry? I thought he just broke something on the Horizon again…]

Pontus (18:58): [Maybe they’re probably hoping to kill you off]

(18:58): [Huh?]

Pontus (18:58): [Don’t look at me like that, maybe they’re trying to get rid of us one by one.]

Moirai (18:58): [ _Don’t joke like that!_ ]

Pontus (18:58): [ _Wahhh you guys are being scary!_ ]

Hemera (18:58): [Sarcasm. _Cute_.]

Moirai (18:58): [ **I** was being serious…]

Pontus (18:58): [Ooooooh that’s right, Moi, you weren’t here when Erebus broke himself, still in training right? Really fucking tragic, you remember--OW]

Hemera (18:58): [Lets **not** talk about that when we’re on our way to… where are we going?]

Erebus (18:58): [You _were_ at the briefing right?]

Hemera (18:58): [Yeah, but I _forgot_. Plus I like it when you explain things to me- _I’m kidding! I’m kidding!_ ]

Erebus (18:59): […the fleet is shipping out soon, but they caught an abandoned ship near the charted course.]

Moirai (18:59): [Colteron?]

Erebus (18:59): [No, it’s a colony ship, and they don’t want to expend any of the regular fleet to check out something that is potentially--]

Pontus (18:59): [Potentially murderous and dangerous as fuck, ok, _thanks Commanders_. Can’t even pretend we’re not expendable.]

Moirai (18:59): [As if we die that easily]

Erebus (18:59): [Let’s just get this over with and get back.]

 When the Colteron started attacking colonies in the outer rim of the Alliance’s protection, the survivors from the lost planets took up hunting down remains of alien ships, picking them apart, and bringing back what they could salvage to habited planets for money or food.  As more colonies were destroyed, the more people left without homes, the more _vicious_ scavenger crews became to make their money to the point that they would no longer be satisfied with hoping they would stumble upon a good find and rummage through broken ships _hoping_ there would be something there worthwhile that hadn’t already been picked apart. Rumors quickly began circulating of massive scavenger ships ripping smaller ones to shreds, piracy, looting, _murder_ – and instead of fixing the issue, the Alliance simply banned any entry of these ships near Earth space. The closest they were allowed to get was in a neutral zone just outside of the Mars colony.

They were not allowed anywhere near military space.

None of them ever came into military controlled space less they wanted to be shot out of the sky. So the fact this ship was floating aimlessly in a well-known flight path of massive Alliance transport ships was a red flag.  

The scavenger ship was a patchwork of new and old rusted parts skillfully placed together around a cargo bay that was large enough to hold three starfighters side by side. Two small mechanical arms meant for prying metal and scrap dangled freely on its underbelly, still clutching bundles of wire, small engines, and weathered sheet metal from some ship graveyard or abandoned station that was nowhere in sight.

 Moirai (19:02):  [I’m not picking anything up on my radar, that ship seems empty.]

Pontus (19:02): [The engines must be out too, it’s completely dark in there.]

Hemera (19:02): [It didn’t appear there was any damage or any fight… Don’t horror movies start off this way?]

Moirai (19:02): [You’re watching too many of those Earth films…]

Pontus (19:02): [I think the next line is supposed to be--]

Erebus (19:02): [Let’s split up?]

There was a collective chuckle as their transport ship docked with a light shake.

Erebus (19:03): [No, I’m serious. When we dock, Hemera and Pontus, I need you to go to the engine room and turn the power on in the ship – it looks like all life support is off, but there is still enough air in there to breathe normally. Let’s not chance it and keep your suits on until it’s back on. Moi and I will head to the main deck to see what the captain’s log says before we get ready to eject this baby into deep space. Stay nonverbal. If you encounter anyone living (unlikely), ensure their safety and bring them back to the ship. If you encounter any ‘Teron, kill on sight.]

(19:03): [Roger.]

 The collective _thunk_ of their feet landing in the darkened cargo bay resounded off of half broken wings of alien and domestic ships a like, engines and oddities that filled the hanger only visible from the bright white lights of their transport. The smell of metal and grease seeped thickly into their suits despite the lack of enough breathable oxygen making the creaking silence of the vessel uneasy.

Even steady steps echoed as the pairs split off with rifles at the ready, walking through pitch black hallways with so signs of any struggle or fight in the small living rooms that they passed. Erebus was the first in the bridge, dust floating in between darkened monitors and outdated patchwork computers.

Erebus (19:10): [Pontus, how are things looking on your end?]

Pontus (19:10): [It should be starting just about now—]

The ship shuttered to life and the simple outdated screens in the room flickered into being. Moirai sheathed her weapon and sat down at the computers, tapping away as she accessed whatever information she could.

Moirai (19:10): [It looks like they received a distress beacon about… one month ago _– how long_ has this ship been floating?]

Pontus (19:11): [It’s weird… the engines were all shut off manually. All the life support, everything. Whatever happened here, someone did it on purpose.]

Hemera (19:11): [We’re going to keep looking around to see if we can find signs of the crew.]

Erebus (19:11): [Roger.]

Moirai (19:11): [Ee, it seems the last transmission they received was a distress call, but there’s no audio—wait… it’s downloading something…]

The screens went dark and a red and white code started rolling through, slow at first and then picked up pace as if it was trying to get as much information as possible downloaded into the ship as fast as it could.

In an instant, a high pitched whine screeched through Erebus’ communicator hard enough to make him visibly wince - only getting louder.

Erebus (19:12): [TURN WHATEVER THAT IS OFF.]

Moi looked around confused, [What are you talking about? Turn what off--]

Erebus (19:12): [WHATEVER THE FUCK THAT IS--]

It hit him again to the point where he had to close his eyes, his neck was on fire, and the high pitched buzzing as the device tried to keep up with whatever was going on.

_How could she not hear that??_

He blinked hard and gripped the side panel only to catch sight of the light haired woman next to him. Her eyes were fixated on the screen.

Erebus (19:12): [MOI!]

Erebus shouted through the communicator, but the whine only seemed to bounce his voice back at him adding to the chaotic screeching he was being attacked with. Her noise was starting to bleed and in a moment of pure panic, Erebus pulled the rifle up and fired into the dash. The screen shattered instantly, releasing Erebus from the tense horrid shockwave of noise, and Moirai took a deep shuddering breath before turning and dry heaving into her helmet.

He shot down to her side, but she placed a hand on his shoulder, trying to push him away.

“I’m—I’m fine, it’s fine. I just felt sick is all— _Erebus I’m fine_ ,” she breathed out, immediately trying to stand, “I just—my head really hurts is all, it’s a headache. Y-you know what these old screens can do.”

He didn’t believe her at all and the ringing in his ears came with an odd sense of familiarity. He’s felt this before and an unnerving panic started to set in – they needed to get off this ship.

Hemera (17:13): [We heard a shot, is everything alright up there?]

The two stared at each other in silence. Moi’s heavy breathing through her suit filling the room as she tried to wave at Erebus that she was fine.

Erebus (17:13): [Everything is fine. The dash overloaded when the power came on, that’s all you heard. We can’t gain anything from up here. Did either of you find anything?]

Hemera (17:14): [Ok, but-]

Hemera could tell he was lying, but Pontus was terrible enough at tech work that he’d believe it and thankfully he interrupted before the blond had a chance to interject.

Pontus (17:14): [We found blood down in the lower decks – human, but no bodies. Whatever happened here, the crew left or were taken in a hurry. Only one emergency suit is missing.]

Hemera (17:14): [No signs of Colteron or other alien life. It may have just been another scavenger ship that looted the place and things got messy.]

Erebus (17:14): [Good, let’s stick with that story and head back to the transport. Moi isn’t feeling well.]

Moirai (17:14): [For fucksake Erebus, I’m _fine_.]

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ahhh Moirai, my child - I wonder what happened to her! I hope she's fine ;w;


	8. Chapter 8

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> -LOUD SHRUGGING-  
> So I wrote this when I first started writing my fan fiction and it was really fucking embarrassing and hard to go back over to edit because it was just a bag full of terrible…. which I still think it is, but I’ve edited it enough to be bearable. 
> 
> It was also my very first time writing smut! Which was so apparent! I remember reading over it the first time and being like “oh my god you can’t do that right after doing anal… oh my god especially if he cums in you jfc” but then I stopped caring because this is a fantasy world with fantasy gays in fantasy space with possible tentacle monsters and aliens and just -- dies slowly from embarrassment.
> 
> But, again, I’ve edited it and fixed some things and add some other stuff and just… ugh. Even now, I’m going over it and changing things, but I’ve left a lot of the original ideas in there. It’s so corny jfc but then again Erebus is that type of person when you get to that point with him--  
> I was so torn about when in my story I would reveal this information because I knew where it would fit that made sense and was cool, but it was completed and I just wanted to post it so bad! I was so impatient. 
> 
> Anyway – Here’s how Erebus lost his voice.

Erebus gave out a harsh moan that was quickly absorbed into Nyx’s mouth. Pulling away from the shallow kiss, the dark haired man breathed heavily, gazing into the blue eyes that were toying with him.

“If you’re any louder, we’re going to get caught here, Troy” the man mocked as he playfully nipped at his lips, his hips slowly rising and twisting ever teasingly over him. Erebus couldn’t help but shudder underneath him, straining against the restraints that held his arms above his head. It was almost painful how badly he wanted to wrap his arms around his waist and bring him down, but the most he could do was breathe out husky words at the complete mercy of Nyx.

“Don’t call me that–that’s not who I am here-”

Erebus bit his lip moaning between words as the man lowered himself and rose again sharply, annoyed that he was even capable of nit picking at such a thing. Nyx’ blue eyes stared at him hard, hungrily, waiting for him to beg for more as Erebus’ head lolled to the side, trying to hide his face in the crevice of his arm.

“You’re going to have to speak a little louder than that,” a sadistic smile spreading across the thin face as he gingerly pressed against his bare chest, whispering just softly enough to make every nerve tingle.

“Nyx, _please_ ” Erebus finally managed to choke out the words, his entire body yearning at the man’s cool touch. Nyx pulled his face away from its hiding place admiring his handy work.

“Say it again.”

Erebus’ cheeks burned and he shuddered again looking up into soft lined face. Slyly wriggling a hand free, he caught the other by surprise and pulled his face in for a deep kiss, Nyx digging his hands deep into Erebus’ chest. Erebus let his other free hand grasp tightly on the man’s waist, forcing him down with a surprised and pleasured gasp.

“ _Please_.”

He commanded, the dark deep huskiness in his voice causing Nyx to cry out, the initial yelp fading into a whimpering moan. Erebus took the pause as a chance to take the lead, biting at his neck roughly, and rolling his hips with his partner’s panting which was growing faster with every moment. Pushing him a little lower each time, thrusting just a little harder – Nyx fell onto him, trying to stabilize on the wall before wrapping his arms around his neck.

The other’s smell of him drove Erebus crazy; steel, sweat, the faint smell of cigarettes, the light smell of sweetness; he greedily took it in licking the nape of his neck just over the white mark that stood out against his pale skin. He mumbled words into the side of his partner’s neck as the heat rising from his stomach made his mind go hazy. He was going on pure instinct and Nyx’s breathing grew into high pitched moans that he tried to stop by biting his lower lip, but Erebus let his hand tug at his chin, whispering “don’t” in between thrusts. He wasn’t going to let him hide his voice, not when it was so deliciously lewd. Nyx’s nails dug deeper into his shoulders, moaning louder as they both let the heat take control.

_ “Ah! T-troy!” _

Nyx arched his back into him, resting one hand behind him and the other on Erebus’ cheek, weakly trailing his fingers up to his lips that the fighter gladly welcomed by licking at their tips. As soon as his mouth opened, soft fingers slid across his tongue, and Erebus’ own hand found its way to the white mark at the other’s shoulder letting his thumb brush against it and then pressing down on it hard. The small body on top of him let out a stifled cry as he went ridged, cumming across his chest – the small jolt forcing the fingers in Erebus’ mouth to jerk downwards onto his own mark. Electric shockwaves rippling through him instantly making him push the already twitching body one last time down into him as he came.

For a moment it was just the two of them, arms wrapping around each other, feeling the rapid heartbeats radiate between them. Nyx fell forward panting into Erebus’ neck and he couldn’t help but lean against him, taking in the shivering man’s smell again. Light kisses trailed along the thin but muscular neck, leading up to his cheek, as Nyx rested down again on his lap.

“Tr- I mean, _Erebus_ … you mumbled something towards the end there, what did you say?”  
Erebus frowned hard as he looked over at the playfully accusatory face gazing back at him.  
“…I have no idea what you’re talking about.”  
There was a moment of silence as they stared at each other digesting the immensity of his lie.  
“You. LIAR.” Nyx shot up punching at his chest bursting with laughter, “you better tell me what you said or… or I’ll torture you for the information.”  
Erebus chuckled at the onslaught of tiny fists, “Torture me? What are you a kid?”  
“You know it.”  
“Every day huh?”  
“ _Yes_ , every day.”  
“Then I suppose I don’t mind **not** telling you.”

He attempted to lean in for a small kiss, but the blue-eyed man was not happy with that answer and tugged at the shirt Erebus was attempting to unskillfully untie from the bunk post. Wrenching free, he pulled it down over Erebus’ face so that he was caught awkwardly without being able to see.

“But you’ll tell me one day, right?” The sultry voice was clear as day through the muffled folds of the shirt and the tan skinned man peeked through the hole to see the flirtatious soft face stare back at him. Erebus was bashful despite his outward appearance. Nyx knew what he said, but was waiting for him to say it to his face in his own time and this was only one of the many qualities he admired in the man. Happy his blushing face was rather hidden, he managed to mumble out a few words before pulling the shirt down.

“…yeah, one day…”

Nyx gingerly stood up feeling satisfied with that answer and strolled over to the bathroom, picking up the clothes that had been strewn about only pausing when he stared at the broken blinds in Erebus’ small room.

“Weren’t you saying you were going to get this fixed?”  
“Yeah _yeah_ , it’s on my to do list…”  
The man stared at it thoughtfully.  
“Don’t. I like it.”  
“What? It’s a blind, what is there to like about it?”  
“Have you been to Earth?”  
“…no, but I’m not sure what that has to do with blinds…”

“Well apparently there are houses, or used to be houses, tiny things, only one or two stories tall, that sat in the middle of weed fields (Do you mean grass?) Yeah! And the sun would rise and to _keep out the sunlight_ they would have blinds, they would like, dim the light or whatever that came into the room.”

“…For being one of the best navigators here, describing what happens on Earth is not one of your fortes. There haven’t been fields on Earth in centuries and the ones that are there belong to the wealthy, what does this have anything to do with me fixing my broken blind? You’re weirding me out…”

“Well…” Erebus had finished putting on his pants and was admiring the view of Nyx putting on his. Being out in space had caused him to lose weight and his white pants were loose around his waist. He found the way the cloth rested on his hips to be alluring, but made a mental note to make him eat more.

“…it’s like our own little house, space is our little field, and that’s our little broken blind letting in the sun.” Nyx turned away as he said this, trying to hide his embarrassment. After a few moments of silence, he finally turned around to see Erebus biting his lip with a stupid look on his face.  
“If you’re going to laugh at me, I’m just going to leave.”  
“No! Nonono! _Oh. My. God._ No. Come back here-stop- _come here._  Do you listen to yourself? _Do you have any idea how fucking adorable you are?”_

Erebus held his partner close to his chest trying to contain his laughter at the ever reddening figure. Cupping his face, Erebus said matter-o-fact-ly, “Hahaha, alright alright, I _won’t fix_ the blind until you say it’s ok, ok? We’re going to be late to if you say anything more about this _home house whatever_ talk.”  


With a quiet nod, they put on their jackets and left the comfort of the small room.

* * *

Erebus and Nyx were the last to arrive to the briefing room and a stern faced Hemera stood in the doorway with folded arms.  
“If you were any later, I would have called the commander on you.”  
“As uptight as usual Hemera, you need to loosen up a little, _have some fun._ ”  
“I’ll have fun once the work is done, _and it’s never done._ ”  
“Yeah… one of your buttons is uneven, you might want to check that.”  
The blonde looked down and hissed back, “They are- _they are not uneven_!”  
Erebus snapped is fingers at him, “no but you still checked-OOF”

He was quickly cut short of his greetings as a large older man tackled him from his waist. Phanes was the same height at Erebus, but his build was more of a wide body builder, and everyone was pretty sure that the man could lift starfighters without having Colteron DNA in him.

“EREBUS WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN I HAVEN’T SEEN YOU IN AGES,” the man bellowed scooping him up into the air taking in a deep breath into his chest.  
“You smell like you’ve been… _sinning_.”  
A foolish grin slowly spreading across his face as he set the struggling man down, pulling him into the room.  
“So who’s the lucky lady?” Phanes asked in a hushed whisper.  
“Pft, like I would tell you.”  
“What, I’m not trust worthy?”  
Erebus squinted hard at the oversized man.  
“…Who was it that spread around that Thesis was pregnant?”

A short woman with a tight black bun whipped around at the sound of his name, “Yeah! I still haven’t forgiven you for that! Stop fucking bringing it up!”  
“I can’t help it is we’re all semi-mentally connected ok? I could have sworn you were pregnant… or you’re just good at hiding it…”

Phanes rubbed his temples with a quiet laugh, “you’d think she’d be excited for us to have a kid… but _anyway_. You better tell me who it is, _boy_ , or else-”  
“Sorry to interrupt, Ee, the commander will be here soon and I want to show you some data before he starts” Nyx popped up between them placing a soft hand on his arm waving a data pad.

“Yeah, I’ll be right there- _what are you doing!?_ ”  
Erebus hissed as Phanes leaned in near the smaller man, took a deep breath through his nose, and then did a slow turn towards Erebus with a slight twinkle in his eyes.

“Yeah… I’m going to leave. Come over when you’re free.” Nyx left shaking his head.

After a moment of silence Phanes turned and said matter-of-factly: “…he smells like you.”  
“So? We walked over here together. Nothing wrong with that.”  
The stupid grin on the large man’s face got bigger as Erebus stuttered his excuse.  
“First off, don’t get defensive. Second: you’re shitting me right now. Him? Don’t tell me you’ve imprinted like the baby bird you are………….… holy shit you have. Have you told him? We all knew you were into _someone_  but none of us could figure out who and Myles kept his fucking mouth shut about it…”

Erebus’ turned on his heels ignoring the stunned laughter coming from the man. Nyx looked up quizzically from his seat as he approached, “…is everything alright?”

“Yeah… just… just ignore him… what did you need to show me?”  
“Here is the data from the last ship we raided. What do you see?”  
The dark eyed man stared at the screen that was scrolling through thousands of bits of code.  
“Uh, do you want an honest answer?”

“That ship was a research station and this is code we pulled directly from their lab. They fought as if their lives depended on protecting this and from what I’ve been able to recover, it’s some sort of virus-“  
“I **love** it when you talk this way”

He swatted Erebus’ hand away from him.

“Ee, I’m serious! Whatever this is, they’re trying to weaponize it and use it against us. I can’t figure out what it does yet, but if they get into our main system, it could be trouble for the entire fleet, especially for us.” His hand lightly touched his own communicator, the worry in his eyebrows were causing a terrible wrinkle around his eyes.

“Ok ok ok, just stop with that look,” he poked in between the man’s eyes, “what do you want me to keep an eye out for?”

“We’re about to go out to that abandoned ship we found, I think there may be data supporting my theory out there, it’s got the same configurations as the last. If you see a console, download as much of it as possible so I can take a look. I’ll be entering the ship last, so I want to make sure to get the data as quickly as possible before the ‘Teron have a chance to wipe it.”

Erebus gave a mock salute when a shadow loomed over them and Phanes and Thesis took a seat behind them.

“Oh look Thesis, the famed navigator Nyx and his trusty side kick Ee. Ever wonder what makes them such a good pair?”  
Erebus shook his head frowning hard at the man behind him. _Don’t you dare.  
_ “I wonder Phanes” she snickered, “you know, technically we don’t even need to be paired up and yet they _insist_ on only working together.”  
Nyx looked up at Erebus is horror and gave a harsh whisper, _“Did you tell them?”_

“Maybe they’re just a couple of love birds, hmm? _Maybe? Hmm?_ ”  Phanes was nudging the back of Nyx’s seat for emphasis, _“gonna profess your love in front of everyone? Hmm???”_

“ **Did Erebus finally confess??** Is that what we’re talking about?” Hemera chimed in loudly, joining the group, flopping next to Erebus with a delighted grin.  
“TROY!” Nyx gave him a surprisingly hard punch before turning away.  
“OW-WHAT? I DIDN’T SAY ANYTHING- WHAT DO YOU THINK I SAID? Wow, thanks a lot jack ass, look what you’ve done.”

Phanes was laughing through tears, his large chest bouncing, and Thesis was quietly chuckling, playfully hitting him to stop.

“I’m going to take that as a no…” Hemera looked disappointed.  
“You better apologize to your wife Troy, you can’t have a happy home that way.”  
“You’re all pieces of shit and _don’t call me that._ ”

Everyone reached over and gave comforting pats to the blushing angry Nyx who staunchly refused to turn around, “it’s ok, we all can’t pick winners.”

“Apparently not,” he hissed out.

Erebus gave an exasperated sigh and couldn’t focus on the briefing as it began, although he didn’t need to. The mission was simple: derelict ship. May have Colteron. Kill the Colteron. Follow up ship does its sweep. Take data. Come home. Easy enough. So easy in fact it only took the four of them, and Erebus could handle that.

It was the flustered man sitting next to him that he couldn’t.

Erebus let his foot slide across the ground and nudge at the side of his partner’s, but he was being ignored and in this instance, his childish behavior shot through the roof. He nudged more until he was practically pushing the man’s leg with the entirety of his foot.

[ _Stop it_!]

Nyx shot around so fast Erebus jumped slightly in his chair, hissing into their communicators trying not to disrupt the briefing.

Erebus: [What is _wrong_ with you? They tease about this shit all the time and last I checked we were fine this morning-]  
Nyx: [They can tease us about it because apparently everyone else knows what we are except me.]  
Erebus: [What do you mean _“what we are”?_ We’ve been like… _this_  for like… what is it, a year now? I… I thought that was very apparent what -]  
Nyx: [You’re a real fucking idiot, you know that right? Just because we can all feel each other doesn’t mean we shouldn’t use our fucking words every now and then.]  
Erebus: [ _Just an hour ago we seemed fine, I don’t see what changed between then and now_ ]  
Nyx: [Well! I don’t know either!]  
Erebus: [What, you just expect me to say it now!?]  
Nyx: [NO CAUSE NOW ITS–]  
Hemera: […You do know that you’re both on the public chat right…]  
Phanes: [HAHAHA GET A ROOM. Thesis and I are **actually fucking married**  and you two are worse off than we are.]  
Thesis: [But he’s right you know Erebus~]  
Pontus: [Come on guys, Ee’s shy]

A murmur of agreements chimed in all around as the pair sat in horrified silence for completely different reasons. Nyx’s pale skin turned a violent red as he shot back to stare at the screen that was still going over their mission and Erebus simply huffed, folding his arms attempting to not visibly pout.

It wasn’t until Erebus walked all the way to the drop ship that was preparing to take off, that he finally bullied himself into just ripping the band-aid off.

“Hold up! I’ll be right back!”

Phanes gave him a sly look, “what, gotta go talk to your wife?”

Erebus winked and make a clicking noise with his mouth as he shimmied away, bursting into a sprint. He slowed to a jog behind the shorter man. His heart seeming to gain a terrible momentum the closer he got. Was it hot in there or was it just him?

“Hey! Hey! Wait! Nyx! NIC. Goddamnit, Nicolas turn around, I have something I have to tell you.”  
“What could you possibly have to tell me right now? You’re going to miss your flight.”

He ignored the pounding in his chest and the heat that was radiating from his ears, pulling the man close he breathed the words just quietly enough for the other to hear. Nyx fumbled with the stack of data files in his hands before they slipped downward onto the floor with a dumbfounded look on his face, staring at Erebus is utter astonishment. Giving a quick kiss on the cheek, he turned on his heel and skipped off to the ship with a smug smile; feeling like the heat he was producing in his face was hot enough to cook something on.  

Just as he made it to the ship and it was closing the doors, Erebus caught sight of Nyx was shakily picking the data files that had fallen and he was turning a beautiful shade of pink that Erebus took a mental picture of to save for later.

A few minutes later a message blinked on his wrist.

[Nyx (19:04): That doesn’t count. You didn’t let me respond]  
[Erebus (19:06): I didn’t want to hear it, plus there was a 50% chance you were just going to hit me again.]  
[Nyx (19:06): YEAH, MAYBE, BUT WHY NOT!? WHY DIDNT YOU WAIT]  
[Erebus (19:07): Because now I have something to look forward to when I get back]

His communicator stayed silent while they passed into Colteron space and Erebus suddenly started to panic inside.

[Nyx (19:15): Then let’s hurry back]  


“Erebus! Get that shit eating grin off your face!”  
“S-sorry, I’m just really excited to get back.”  
“Yeah his wife is at home.”  
“Shut up asshole-“

The captain slammed his hand against the bars of the drop ship to focus their attention and in an instant the laughter and shit talking ended.

“We’ll be arriving in 60 seconds, prepare yourself! From what we can tell, the Colteron ship is empty, but we won’t be taking any chances. We need to figure out why they left it here. Thesis and Hemera, you will go first as A squad. Erebus and Phanes, you’ll be B Squad, check for anything they may have missed. I don’t want anything catching us by surprise.”

The massive Colteron structure was floating aimlessly and it only took one glance to tell that this was no ship. It looked to be an outpost – ships were docked, lights were on, all of the basic functions from the outside seemed to be working, but there was no movement, no radio chatter, nothing.

Complete and utter silence.

As the two ships connected and the engines forced air in the breezeway, a foul stench filled the tube that was so strong they could smell it through their suits.

“God, it tastes like something died.”  
“…tastes? Thesis, you’ve tasted death?”  
“Yeah, I had those nasty ass cookies you made Hemera.”  
 _“Why I never. I’ll have you know those cookies are a family tradition–”_  
“Tradition of ass eaters—“  
“SHUT UP LADIES. Head to the main deck and we’ll convene there. Switch to nonverbal; I don’t want them hearing us before we see them. The system lock is about to go in 3…”

Erebus and Phanes raised their guns and after a pause the metal doors twisted open. Without hesitation the four rushed through the door checking for movement and they were met with a gruesome sight.

Phanes: [Fuck me, this is just… _fucked_ ]

The hall was dim and eerily quiet, only the sounds of the ships humming engines could be heard and a slow steady drip. As the automatic lights flickered on, body after Colteron body could be seen strewn about the hall. Blackish red blood spattered the walls and the well-known burn of plasma rifles dotted nearly every surface telling a story of the mangled body near it. These bodies had been there for a long time – the thinner pools of blood had congealed and dried and the alien bodies were beginning to bloat and swell.

Thesis and Hemera quickly moved in sync to the right disappearing in the weaving tunnels and keeping their guns at the ready, Erebus and Phanes began to walk in a steady pace matching the other’s rhythm as they made their way into the carnage on the opposite side. Automatic lights flickered and blinked on as they made their way through the darkness and the scene only became progressively worse as they headed deeper in. Their tension was high each time they rounded a corner, only to see the pitch blackness, hoping that nothing was lurking just before the greenish yellow lights blinked on to just reveal more carnage. It wasn’t until they reached a massive door that they stopped and listened, only to hear nothing except their own breathing and the pleasant hum of the foreign engine below.

Erebus dusted off the panel to the door and nodded to the larger man before pressing down. There was a brief pause as if the system was trying to work itself up to turn on again and then it slowly struggled to open.

The large body that was preventing the mechanism to function properly slid through the crack with a heavy _thud_ looking exactly like the rest of the dead that they had seen. Gingerly stepping around it, the scene in the large room was like a painting that only used the colors black, brown and red. Erebus could feel his partners discomfort slipping through their brainwaves.

They had never seen anything like this. Colteron were hunched over each other, some with weapons, others looking as if they were defending themselves, cut, bloody, and covered in a black substance. One in particular caught Erebus’ eyes, slumped over a broken computer display – it’s mouth covered in what he could only assume was black bile. It had a piece of sharp glass from the screen in its three fingered hand and a deep gash through its neck. _Self-inflected?_

The Colteron bodies surrounding it were cut and slashed until they were nearly unrecognizable, the blood splatters suggesting that he was the culprit. This repeated with the many other bodies in the room, either glass or a weapon in one of its hands, multiple bodies surrounding it, and the black sticky bile.

Erebus: [It looks as if they were killing each other…]  
Phanes: [what would make them do that?]

Nearly all of the computer displays were broken, but looking around at the carnage- Erebus found what he was looking for: a single screen that hadn’t been smashed. Rushing over, he pulled out the small drive and looked for a port.

Phanes: [What are you doing?]  
Erebus: [Nyx was saying that there was some virus these assholes were working on and to download as much of the mainframe data as possible.]

After a futile effort trying to find a port, Erebus set down his gun and tore the top of the panel. Pulling wires, he connected them - quietly proud of his ingenuity – and the screen turned on immediately. Code started to scroll on the screen and he pressed (what he assumed) what the enter key to begin downloading. Red and white alien text mixed with numbers and symbols scrolled across the screen and as he stared at it, it felt like he was being pulled in, the back of him mind pounding with an instant headache–

_ Tink _

The men shot up to attention like dogs hearing a whistle and froze.

_ Tink _

Phanes: [You hear that-]  
He held up his hand and they remained motionless.

_ Tink _

Erebus: [There it is again.]

Its shrill echo reverberated throughout the silent derelict ship, the sound of metal hitting glass.  Picking up his gun, Erebus started towards the direction he thought he heard it coming from - the large main room had multiple doors that lead out from it, but there was only one dark hallway that split off into another silent corridor. Erebus paused and listened again.

_ Tink _

Right. He pressed the button on the end of his gun and the light flickering down the corridor to reveal an unusual sight. There were no bodies this way.

Erebus: [I’ll go check it out, you make sure this data finishes downloading.]

Phanes nodded and turned back to the screen that was still rapid firing code.

Taking a deep breath, Erebus walked into the darkness following the sound as it was getting louder, irregular. The corridor wasn’t long, but it was filled with tables (or possibly gurneys?) making moving quickly difficult.

_ Tink _

Erebus paused in front of a door, positive it was coming from behind there and pressed the button that caused the door to slide open, the soft sliding metal sound seemed to scream out in the darkness.

_ Tink tink! _

The light on the end of his rifle illuminated the room just far enough for him to see rows of display panels that were perfectly intact. Dust swirled through the light as he scanned the room for movement and in the far corner of the room, a single light blinked on.

_ Tink! tink! _

The display had a single phrase in Colteron flashing across the screen. Erebus was dusty on his alien language, but he was positive it said “Execution Complete”. As he drew closer, the dust in the room swirled even more as the fresh air swept in, but a clean spot was left free on the keyboard, very little dust as if someone had been at this computer recently.

_ Tink! _

The sound was right on top of him and Erebus shot his light up directly over the screen and readied himself. He hadn’t noticed at first, but a thick glass covered the far right of the room. He thought it was a wall with how dark it had been, but it wasn’t.

It was glass and it was smeared with the trace black liquid that was a common scene throughout the ship. There was no entry way into the room from this side and the tension in Erebus’ shoulders went down some, thankful that what was staring back at him was trapped there. The large sickly looking Colteron behind the glass was in a trance – its small beady eyes were glazed over, mouth sagging, and it’s large sharp teeth cracked and broken.  It didn’t notice Erebus right away and it stared past him, gently rocking back and forth.

_ Tink _

Its head hit the glass again; a metal casing covered half of its face that was rusted and old – whatever test subject this was had somehow managed to survive locked in this room

Erebus: [Phanes, I found something, copy]

Silence.

_ Tink _

Erebus: [Phanes, I found something, please copy]

Silence.

Erebus: [Can anyone get a hold of Phanes, I can’t seem to connect. Anyone, please copy.]

His communication device began to screech and fizz with static and Erebus swore under his breath, disconnecting. Something was wrong.

_ Tink _

The large scaly body continued rocking and Erebus kept his light fixated on it, but took a quick scan of its room through the darkness. It was empty except for the pool of black speckling the floor and from he could tell, it had been in there for an extremely long time.

_ TINK _

The Colteron smashed its head into the glass harder than before, its beady eye trying to focus as it twisted its neck downward towards the light. It shook violently letting out a gargled whine before its jaw sagged even more than it should have been capable of doing, hurling more of the black liquid onto the glass. It jerked violently and then buckled under its own weight, as if the mere movement to twist its neck was too much for it, and it fell motionless on the ground.

The fighter decided it was time to leave and took another quick look around before he bolted back down the hall. Popping back into the main hall, he glanced behind him hoping that nothing was going to be there when he turned. It somehow felt like he was being watched despite being surrounded by dead bodies.

“Let’s get this data and leave, I think something is fucking with my communicator and you wouldn’t believe what I saw just now. I’ve got mad fucking jitters right now. Phanes?”

The hairs on the back of his neck rose as he turned to see the man silently staring into the screen, the lines of code still scrolling through. He felt… different… Had he not seen the man with his own eyes, Erebus would have sworn the sensation he was feeling radiating from him was someone completely different.  Phanes didn’t move even as he got closer and Erebus repeated himself.

“Phanes?”

In a slow deliberate movement as if it weighed a million pounds, Phanes took off his helmet and dropped it to the floor with a loud _THUNK_. The large man’s jaw was clenching and unclenching, his head vibrating as if it were about to break from the tension, and the pit of Erebus’ stomach dropped. He took a rushing step forward and halted when Phanes doubled over the broken panel and began to vomit a thick black substance that was mixed with blood. The fighter froze staring at the large man as fear took hold - he had no idea what was happening. Phanes clutched the side panel and turned to face the voice next to him, eyes filling a glassy black color as he shivered.

Erebus: [Command! Come in -we have a problem. Phanes, he’s-]

Before Erebus could finish his sentence, the thick man rolled back and shot forward like a canon, a fist barreling towards his face, making hard contact with his helmet. The glass cracked immediately as he was thrown backwards with the full weight Phanes had put into the punch. The impact to the back of his helmet nearly knocked him out and he blinked quickly with his back still on the gorund, fumbling for his gun. He was trying to connect the dots with panicked breathing – this was only something they had read about in old reports. This only happened when they tried to connect to the hive mind and once the connection was made, it was irreversible. The only solution was to eliminate the target before it made its way onto the ship, that’s what they were always told.

This was no longer Phanes. 

This was the enemy.

Erebus’ heart felt like it was shattering as he raised it to take aim at his comrade when Phanes rushed him again. His massive hand grabbed the fabric of his suit and slammed him down again hard. He was hesitating, there had to be a way, something he could do—but all thoughts ceased as he body made hard contact with the floor again. He could feel the cracking in his ribs as the man put his full weight into the next crushing blow causing him to cough up bits of blood into his helmet.

Erebus clutched at the wrist that was twisted around the front of his suit when his helmet was ripped off. The stench of the room filling his mouth as he took a hard ragged breath, and he finally managed to look at the twisting figure. Phanes eyes had changed completely and the area around his communicator was growing black and bruised, his front was covered in the black substance that dotted every creature in the room. Phanes raised him from the ground and dragged him over to the console - letters, numbers and Colteron symbols rushing through the screen. He could feel his rifle swinging from its strap on his back but he could get a good hold of it and the crushing impact the man had on him still had him trying to understand what was happening.

Erebus could feel them getting closer when Phanes lifted him up again and slapped him against the broken dash, pieces of sharp metal and glass pressing into his skin. He opened his eyes long enough to see his comrade trying to turn the display towards him, Phanes wanted to make him see something and a fear gripped Erebus’ stomach again.

He didn’t want to see what was on that screen.

A primal fear dragged its claws across his heart and he knew if he wanted to live through this, _he could not look at that screen._

Shutting his eyes, he desperately grasped for the gun that was now swinging freely at his side just out of reach.

He could hear the crunching of glass and a slight pressure on his side of his ribs that was a new pain compared to the blunt edge of the dash. Erebus squinted down as much as he could to avoid the massive screen pressed against him just in time to see the man pulling back a shard of broken display tearing at the edges of his suit. In a panic, Erebus’ eyes snapped open and kicked just enough to shift himself upwards as the makeshift blade dug hard, but missed his lungs.Unfortunately it dug in just above the soft part of his navel and tore outward taking blood, suit, and flesh with it. 

Shaking hands reached for his gun that was now within reach and with a single fire, shot Phanes in the shoulder throwing him back.

Erebus remained focused on the still body through the sight of his rifle and waited for that horrifying crack they would all feel when they lost one of their own as he slipped onto the ground. Phanes wasn’t dead, he could feel that much, and he was both relieved and terrified. The man gave a shuddering sigh clutching his bleeding side, trying to keep what was left of it in tact. He was shaking, but the adrenaline in his body was allowing him to move despite the pain he knew was coming like a tsunami and the waters had only just receded. He needed to act fast.

Just as he was attempting to stand, the large motionless body of the man formerly known as Phanes shot up, thick blood pouring from his shoulder and more of the black bile dripping from his mouth with glassy eyes that watered with some semblance of recognition for what he’d done. He stared at Erebus without blinking, color leaving his skin to a grey sick shade as the blackness at his neck spread even more rapidly. 

Erebus gave a short shout, but his cry fell on deaf ears as the man grabbed the shard of glass and dug it hard and deep across his throat, thick red and black shimmered as fell backwards and the pained _snap_  at the loss of their connection rippled throughout his body.

Everything happened too fast.

He couldn’t comprehend it and he sat there motionless, arms still outstretched as if it would turn back time to moments before the death of his friend, staring at the limp body on the floor when a sharp pain smacked him back into reality.  It wasn’t from the gash on his side or the broken ribs or the pounding he could feel from where his face slapped on glass or when his head cracked against his helmet. It came from his neck, his _communicator and it was on fire._

Erebus gripped the side of the console and wrenched himself up enough to see his reflection in the dark screen. Black was beginning to spider through his veins and with a sudden cough he could see whatever dark substance was coming up from his lungs. How did he get infected? Was it a virus? Was it airborne? The code? The only connection he could make was that whatever it was that got Phanes had infected him. It seemed to be slow acting and he wasn’t going to allow whatever this was to get back to the Spartan. To his comrades. To Nyx. 

It had been nearly 20 minutes since they arrived, the second ship would be docking soon–

As if on cue, he heard footsteps from down the hall. Sure enough Nyx’s radiant white uniform turned the corner with Thesis who immediately halted - concern dotting their faces with the pained knowledge that one of them had died. Erebus gave a short laugh at his luck - this day was going so well before this. 

Thesis was quick to react, one of the things Phanes had liked about her, and she quickly grabbed Nyx who was attempting to rush over. The nerves under Erebus’ skin were growing tighter and it was getting hard to focus. A million voices were rushing through his head, screaming in a language he couldn’t understand until it droned out to a hum making him sick to his stomach. The hum picked up again to a chatter, but this time he could hear it, understand it. A deep voice was calling to him, telling him–

Erebus keeled over and began to vomit black. He was still in control, but the deep voice was getting louder, calling from the back of his skull, almost screaming. He could feel it trying to break its way into his mind, but he couldn’t turn into one of them, not here. Not now.

In that moment Erebus’ steadfast gaze full of resolution for what he was about to do met Nyx’s eyes that were full of trepidation. He was still struggling against the strong grip of Thesis as she stared in accusatory horror from him to the bloody body of Phanes - he thought that even if he had the chance to explain, she would never forgive him, but that was fine. This was fine. She was raising her gun, taking aim when Nyx smacked it down screaming at her. At least she understood what Erebus was doing, but Nyx… that small laugh got caught in his throat again. The moment felt like an eternity and the image of Nyx’s embarrassed rosy smile from earlier flashed in Erebus’ mind. With a smile of determination and a deep breath, he dug his nails into the sides of his neck and pulled as hard as he could on his communicator.

The pain was unbearable as it tore away at his nerves, shrieking for him to stop. He could swear he saw Nyx screaming, his beautiful face contorted with rage and fear, Thesis at a loss of what to do, but Erebus knew that with this, he wouldn’t turn.  

Then everything went black.

* * *

 

[Commence reboot. Scan all files for excess data outside of main source. Block all memory files of last seven minutes.]

Erebus’ vision was coming back from the black void of pain only to change to bright lights and red. Erebus had failed at pulling out his device, that was quickly clear and he peeled his eyes open while trying to stand. Squinting, he tried to make sense of his surroundings when he was violently jerked down to the floor by a pull in his neck. Nyx’s communicator was plugged into his own that dangled painfully from the side of his neck that was then connected to a small data pad the small navigator managed to bring with him. 

The frail man laid rather motionless, pulling Erebus down to him as he attempted to stand. In an instant, he was at his side, trying to assess the situation. The computer had the codes for Erebus’ communicator, it was scanning and pulling out huge sections of data that was scrolling quickly and Nyx’s bloodied fingers managed to hit enter before rolling onto his back. The navigator’s normally white suit was covered in blood, his side torn out, bits of bone and flesh dangling freely, and Erebus’ dirtied bloodied hands shaking as they tried to figure out where to start.

Nyx: [I can’t wipe the virus completely, but I can encrypt it into itself. You won’t be able to talk about it and you’ll probably end up not talking at all, but you’ll live. I think everyone will be a bit happier for that  haha–]

[Outside incoming communication cancelled. Begin data encryption.]

Erebus was at a loss for words and he clutched at the wheezing man with bloodied hands as he tried to make poor jokes. He could feel the time slipping away from him, as if every word was going to be his last and a fear was filling the pit of his stomach. _Did he do this?_ He kept trying to say something, anything, but he couldn’t find the words. What happened? Where was Thesis? Who did this to him?

His words were cut off between the blood covered coughs, Nyx gave a sharp intake of air before wheezing out nearly inaudible words, “d-don’t… tell me…” Erebus didn’t understand, none of this made sense, “…or else… I’ll, h-ha-ave nothing to c-come back to.”

His smile never faded, but the small light in his clear blue eyes dimmed.

Erebus was trying to breathe between the tears that were welling up in his face but his body was constricting so hard it was nearly impossible to force out words. His brain wasn’t catching up with the situation, he couldn’t believe what his eyes were showing him, Nyx wasn’t supposed to die today. _He_ was the one who was supposed to die. 

The only words he managed to choke out he repeated over and over again in a whisper no one but the limp figure could hear, “you still have to tell me, you still have to give me a response to what I told you earlier, you still have to tell me”

He was cradling the man’s head that had already gone limp, the color slowly draining from his lips, and all Erebus could do was continue to break down, giving pleading whispers, begging the figure to not leave.

[Encryption complete. Data purge and reset in 3… 2… 1.]

Erebus managed to choke out the final words “I love you” before a searing white hot pain erupted into his body as his communicator began to reset, every nerve in his body igniting at once, causing him to yelp out in pain. Mid-way through the scream that was growing ever louder, it went silent, like a sad song that was cut off half way through. Erebus screamed as hard as he could, but all there was, was silence.

He continued to scream even after the pain subsided, burying his face deep into the cold chest that no longer smelled of steel and sweat and cigarettes or the light hint of sugar. He screamed until he was light headed, screamed until he fainted, crumpled in the ever growing pool of blood that was surrounding him clutching what he would never get back.

A deafening silence fell over the bloodied hall.   
A painful and resolute silence that seemed to pressure the other men as they rounded the corner looking at the gruesome scene, as if it knew that it had heard the last words Erebus would ever speak.


End file.
